U.S. jobless claims rise for first week after dropping for five straight weeks

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Initial jobless claims in the United States last week rose for the first week after dropping for five straight weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

In the week ending Sept. 17, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased by 5,000 to reach 213,000, according to a report released by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The four-week moving average for initial jobless claims, a method to iron out data volatility, decreased by 6,000 to 216,750, the report showed.

The latest report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits, which was reported with a one-week lag, decreased by 22,000 to 1.38 million during the week ending Sept. 10.

The number of job openings in the United States rose to 11.2 million by the end of July, as the imbalances between labor market supply and demand remained, the U.S. Labor Department reported earlier. With the increase in job openings, there were nearly two job positions per available worker.

As the U.S. Federal Reserve ramps up its fight against surging inflation, the strong job market may be about to take a turn for the worse.

The Federal Reserve's latest quarterly economic projections showed that Fed officials' median projection of unemployment is 4.4 percent by end of 2023, an upward revision of 0.5 percentage point from June.

It also showed that the median projection of GDP growth this year is 0.2 percent, a further downgrade from the 1.7 percent projected in June, indicating less confidence in the economic outlook.

"Reducing inflation is likely to require a sustained period of below-trend growth and it will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. "I wish there were a painless way to do that. There isn't."

The Fed chief also acknowledged that restoring price stability while achieving a relatively modest increase in unemployment and a soft landing would be "very challenging."