April 8 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans unexpectedly filed claims for jobless benefits last week, a jump that may in part reflect difficulty in seasonally adjusting the data ahead of the Easter holiday. Initial jobless applications increased by 18,000 to 460,000 in the week ended April 3, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The week leading up to Easter and the two weeks that follow are traditionally a volatile time for claims, a Labor Department analyst said, making it difficult to discern the underlying trend in applications.
“The trend is still down,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse in New York, who had the highest claims forecast among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. “I would look for continued gradual improvement as we go forward.”
Companies like Home Depot Inc. are adding to workforces for the first time in years on mounting confidence that sales and profits will continue to improve, while others are still waiting for sustained increases in demand. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday that joblessness, home foreclosures and weak lending to small businesses pose challenges to the economy.
Stock-index futures held earlier losses after the report and Treasury securities were little changed. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.4 percent to 1,174.5 at 8:54 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 3.85 percent compared with 3.86 percent late yesterday.
Exceeds Forecast
Economists forecast claims would fall to 435,000 from a previously reported 439,000 the prior week, according to the median of 47 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 420,000 to 450,000.
Easter is difficult to adjust for seasonal factors because it’s a floating holiday that doesn’t come at the same time each year, the government analyst said. Additionally, a state holiday in California on March 31 also complicated the tabulation of the data, he said.
The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, increased to 450,250 last week, from 448,000.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits decreased 131,000 in the week ended March 27 to 4.55 million, the fewest since December 2008. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
Continuing Claims
The number of people who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments fell by about 223,000 to 5.81 million in the week ended March 20.
The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, fell to 3.5 percent in the week ended March 27, the lowest level since January 2009, today’s report showed.
Twenty-three states and territories had an increase in claims for that same week, while 30 had a decrease.
Payrolls rose by 162,000 in March, the biggest gain in three years, the Labor Department reported April 2. The unemployment rate was 9.7 percent for a third month. It has not increased since reaching a 26-year high of 10.1 percent in October.
Corporate profits increased 8 percent in the fourth quarter, capping the biggest year-over-year gain in a quarter century, figures from the Commerce Department showed last month.
Start Hiring
Home Depot Inc., the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, is adding store jobs for the first time in four years as it expects a rebound in sales, Chief Executive Officer Frank Blake said in an interview on April 5.
“We have already added to our payroll this year,” Blake said. “As you have positive transaction growth, you need more associates to handle that in the stores.”
Even so, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday that joblessness was among the challenges to the economic recovery.
“We are far from being out of the woods,” Bernanke said in a speech in Dallas. While the financial crisis has abated and economic growth will probably reduce unemployment over the next year, the U.S. faces hurdles including the lack of a sustained rebound in housing, a “troubled” commercial real estate market and “very weak” hiring.
Other companies continue to eliminate jobs. CA Inc., the second-largest maker of software for mainframe computers, said April 6 it will cut about 1,000 jobs as part of its 2010 restructuring plan. The reductions probably will be completed by the end of September, the company said.
