Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had a consensus estimate of 285,000. “Claims continue to tell us that not many people are losing their jobs”.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 344,002 in the week ending July 11, an increase of 40,416 (or 13.3 percent) from the previous week. A four-week moving average designed to smooth over the weekly variations rose 3,250 to 282,500.

Jobs situation has improved steadily over the past few months.

New York City’s northern suburbs – which includes Westchester, Rockland and Orange counties – gained 7,800 jobs since June 2014, a 1.1 percent increase. Still, Dr. Arvi says the labor market is healthy, especially compared to the rest of the world. The Labor Department pegged the current number of jobless claims at around 281,000, down by 15,000.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent in June, its lowest point since before the recession began in 2007.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that labour market conditions had “improved substantially”, but added that they were not yet consistent with maximum employment.

The solid labour market and firming housing sector, underscored by Thursday’s reports, suggest the economy likely is strong enough to support an interest rate hike this year. Economists project GDP accelerated to a 2.7 percent pace from April through June, according to a Bloomberg survey ahead of the July 30 release on second-quarter growth. 2 % annualized fee within the three months ended March, the slowest tempo in a yr, in accordance to Commerce Department knowledge. Economic slowdown in winter along with an appreciating dollar caused the demand for locally produced goods to decline.