Initial jobless claims rise for first time in over a month

Americans continued filing for unemployment claims at an elevated level last week, this time at a slightly accelerated pace.

According to the Department of Labor, initial jobless claims rose by 31,000 to 742,000 over the week ended 14 November - worse than the expected print of 710,000 on the Street and far from the pre-pandemic average of 200,000 weekly claims.

The four-week moving average also came to 742,000, a decrease of 13,750 from the previous week's revised average, while the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.3% for the prior week, a decrease of 0.3% on the seven days before that.

Secondary unemployment claims, or those which were not being filed for the first time, did continue falling at a steady clip, dropping by 429,000 to 6.37m.