The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose by more than anticipated last week.
Initial jobless claims in the U.S. climbed to 229,000 in the week ended on June 1, up from an upwardly revised total of 221,000 in the prior week. Economists had seen the figure at 220,000.
The four-week moving average, which attempts to account for variances in the weekly figure, edged down to 222,250 from the revised higher 223,000.
The U.S. labor market has shown signs of cooling of late, with data released on Wednesday indicating that private payrolls increased at a slower-than-anticipated rate in May, following on from a soft jobs openings print the day before.
Friday sees the release of the widely-watched monthly payrolls report, with economists expecting the U.S. economy to have added 185,000 jobs, a modest uptick from the prior month.
Investors had been worried that an overly strong economy might prevent the Federal Reserve from lowering rates this year at all, but these concerns appear to have been at least partly alleviated, with September the favored month for the start of the rate-cutting cycle.
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