WASHINGTON: The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose modestly last week, suggesting sustained labor market strength that could help to support the economy amid risks from the coronavirus and weak business investment.
"Manufacturing growth may be past its trough," said Oren Klachkin, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics in New York."However, looking ahead we continue to believe that activity will advance at a lackluster pace as global growth and trade policy headwinds are unlikely to significantly relent and the negative impact of the coronavirus will be felt via global supply chains interlinkages.
The claims data covered the period during which the government surveyed business establishments for the nonfarm payrolls component of February's employment report. Claims fell 13,000 between the January and February survey weeks, suggesting solid job growth this month. In a separate report on Thursday, the Philadelphia Fed said its business conditions index jumped to a reading of 36.7 in February, the highest since February 2017, from 17.0 in January.
Despite the signs of improvement the risks for manufacturing, which makes up about 11per cent of the economy, are stacked to the downside. Boeing's biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years hurt industrial production in January.