US weekly jobless claims up 11,000

WASHINGTON - US jobless claims rose 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 333,000 in the week ended April 30, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Economists were expecting initial jobless claims to rise to about 324,000. The department ascribed the increase to seasonal factors.
But the four-week average of new claims, considered a more reliable guage of unemployment by economists, dipped by 2,000 to 321,500, its lowest in eight weeks.
For the week ended April 23, the Labor Department revised slightly the jobless claims figure to 322,000, from 320,000 announced last week.
In the past week, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits rose by 38,000 to 2.589 million.
The figures were released a day before a closely-watched report on jobs growth in the US economy. Wall Street expects the non-farms payroll data to show 175,000 new jobs were created in April, up from 110,000 in March.

05/05/2005 12:47 GMT