More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first increase in three weeks. Still, the broader trend points to a slowly healing jobs market.
The government says applications for unemployment benefits rose 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 412,000 for the week ended April 9. That left applications at their highest point since mid-February.
However, applications near 375,000 are consistent with a sustained increase in hiring. Applications peaked during the recession at 659,000. The four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, rose to 395,750.
Applications have dropped about 6% over the past two months. At the same time, businesses have stepped up hiring. Companies added more than 200,000 jobs in March for the second month in a row, the first time that has happened since 2006.
The unemployment rate fell to a two-year low of 8.8% and has dropped a full percentage point since November.
However, a more sobering reason for the drop is that the number of people who are either working or seeking a job is surprisingly low for this stage of the recovery.
People without jobs who are not looking for one are not counted as unemployed. Once they start looking again, they are classified as unemployed, and the unemployment rate can go back up.
The number of people collecting benefits fell to 3.68 million during the week ending April 2, one week behind the applications data. That is the lowest total since late September 2008.
Applications for unemployment benefits could rise further in the coming weeks due to disruptions from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Toyota said last week that it will probably be forced to temporarily shut down all of its North American factories. Nissan and Ford have said several North American plants would be closed for some of April.
Businesses in February posted the largest number of job openings in more than two years, evidence that hiring is picking up. Employers advertised 3.1 million available jobs that month, the most since September 2008, the government said yesterday.
Google, electronics store hhgregg and Kohl's are among the companies that have announced plans in recent weeks to increase hiring.
Separate Labor Department figures showed that US core producer prices rose slightly faster than expected in March from February, as motor vehicle prices jumped, and the core increase from a year ago was the largest since August 2009.
The department's seasonally adjusted index for prices paid at the farm and factory gate - excluding volatile food and energy costs - rose 0.3% after gaining 0.2% in February. Economists had expected core PPI to rise 0.2% in March.
