The US Labor Department announced that the number of new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose by 12,000 last week to a total of 472,000 new claims. These latest results lend further credence to fears that employment gains will be slow in coming to the US market, and this is likely to continue to mute consumer spending which accounts for roughly 70 percent of the US economy.
“We need faster growth in employment, and we’re not at that point yet,†Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado, said before the report. “Whether we have adequate economic growth to bring down the unemployment rate significantly remains to be seen.â€
Source: Bloomberg
