U.S. Jobless Claims Climb More Than Expected To Five-Month High

A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits climbed to a five-month high in the week ended November 26th.

The report said initial jobless claims rose to 268,000, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 251,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 253,000.

With the much bigger than expected increase, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 270,000 in the week ended June 25th.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also inched up to 251,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 251,000.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also rose by 38,000 to 2.081 million in the week ended November 19th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims climbed to 2,037,500, an increase of 12,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 2,024,750.

Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for November.

Employment is expected to increase by 170,000 jobs in November after climbing by 161,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.9 percent.