By Sarah Chaney and Likhitha Butchireddygari 
 

WASHINGTON-The number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits increased last week, but remained near historically low levels, a sign of a firm labor market.

Initial jobless claims, a measure of how many workers were laid off across the U.S., rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 216,000 in the week ended July 13, the Labor Department said Thursday. The figure matched expectations of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.

Estimates of claims are volatile week to week and often revised. A separate measure--the four-week moving average, which shows the trend over the past month--fell by 250 to 218,750.

The report also showed so-called continuing claims--those filed by workers unemployed for longer than a week--decreased by 42,000 to 1,686,000 in the week ended July 6. That figure is reported with a one-week lag.

Claims remain exceptionally low, especially considering the population is much larger today than the last time claims were similarly low in the 1960s.

The labor market appears healthy overall. Job openings continue to exceed the number of unemployed. The June jobs report showed hiring picked up after a May lull. The unemployment rate ticked up, to 3.7%, but that was in part due to more people entering the labor market to seek work.

Write to Sarah Chaney at sarah.chaney@wsj.com and Likhitha Butchireddygari at likhitha.butchireddygari@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2019 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)