Initial Jobless Claims Rise 18,000

Initial jobless claims increased by 18,000 to reach 460,000 for the week ended April 3, the Labor Department said Thursday.
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Updated from 8:49 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (

TheStreet

) -- The number of applicants applying for state unemployment insurance for the first time rose last week, suggesting continued wobbliness in the nation's labor market.

According to the Labor Department on Thursday, jobless claims for first timers surged to a seasonally adjusted 460,000 for the week ending April 3, climbing by a surprising 18,000. But

Reuters

reported that a department representative blamed the Easter holiday for much of the jump.

Still, the initial claims tally was far north of estimates calling for a marginal dip to 435,000, according to consensus figures provided by Briefing.com. Initial claims for the previous week were also revised just higher to 442,000 from 439,000.

The average of new claims over the past four weeks also edged higher to 450,250 from 448,000.

The number of applicants continuing to apply for benefits, however, dipped to 4.55 million for the week ending March 27, down from 4.681 million the week before.

While drastic layoffs have appeared to wane of late, job creation remains a befuddling problem. But last week, the government said the nation saw its best month of jobs growth in three years. Employers added 162,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in March, while the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%.

On Tuesday, the

Federal Reserve

released minutes from its March 16 policy-making meeting. Though members of the

Federal Open Market Committee

said the labor market is stabilizing, participants also expressed concern that consumer spending would continue to come under pressure because of job cuts.

Stocks opened lower after the release, as the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

recently dipped 46 points to 10,852 and the

S&P 500

lost 5 points to 1177.

--Written by Sung Moss in New York

.