Claims surged in the week ending Aug. 5, with applications in Ohio accounting for a big chunk of the increase. The state has previously experienced fraudulent filings, leading most economists to shrug off the rise in claims.
Minutes of the Federal Reserve’s July 25-26 meeting published on Wednesday showed that while policy-makers acknowledged “signs that demand and supply were coming into better balance,” they “judged that further progress toward a balancing of demand and supply in the labour market was needed, and they expected that additional softening in labour market conditions would take place over time.”
The claims data covered the period during which the government surveyed business establishments for the nonfarm payrolls component of August’s employment report. Claims rose slightly between the July and August survey period.