Weekly US unemployment claims edge past forecasts

A key indicator of the health of the US jobs market continued to point to ongoing tightness.

According to the Department of Labor, initial claims for unemployment insurance edged higher by 3,000 to reach 215,000 over the week ending on 25 May, matching forecasts on the Street.

The four-week moving average meanwhile, which is designed to smooth out the volatility in the figures from one week to the next, increased by 1,000 to 211,000.

However, secondary unemployment claims, those which are not being filed for the first time and that reference the week before, dropped by 26,000 to 1.657m.