While the number of claims for unemployment benefits, the number of applications for state unemployment insurance benefits, and prices for U.S. government securities all fell last week, an increase in new unemployment filings in the past four weeks (the greatest in more than two years) shows that the labor market is weakening. The average number of jobless claims reported yesterday matched that of claims reported during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

According to the chief U.S. economist for IDEAglobal in New York, Joseph Brusuelas, "the bottom is not falling out of the job market, but we should see some cyclical weakness and a sideways to downward movement in non-farm payrolls over the next several months."

However, while analysts predicted 2.62 million people would claim jobless benefits during the week ending December 1, the actual number of people came to 2.599 million.

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