The U.S. unemployment report is due out this morning and the figures look promising as far as inflation is concerned. Recent indications point to the possibility that the Federal Reserve’s hope of inflation reaching 2 percent is on track. That's the level Fed Chair Janet Yellen and the Federal Open Market Committee believe the economy needs in order to show at least some economic growth.
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the underlying trend continued to point to a strengthening labor market.
Despite Thursday’s survey from the Labor market on Thursday that showed employment in the services industries falling in February for the first time in two years, the overall sector continued to expand.
First Claims Up
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 278,000 for the week ended Feb.27, the Labor Department said. Economists had forecast claims slipping to 271,000 in the latest week.
According to Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York, "Through some of the ups and downs in the weekly series, it looks like the trend in initial claims has improved over the past month, signaling that the labor market continues to improve despite weakness in several other recent economic reports."
Other encouraging surveys showed that a decrease in layoffs by U.S. companies tumbled 18 percent to 61,599 in February and that the index of services industries employment fell 2.4 percentage came in at 49.7 percent, dropping below the 50 threshold for the first since February 2014.