June 6 - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased last week and unit labor costs rose by less than previously thought in the first quarter, indicating the labor market is cooling but not enough to allay the Federal Reserve's hesitance to begin cutting interest rates.
The so-called continuing claims tracking those who collect benefits beyond the first week increased 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.792 million during the week ending May 25. Yields on U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. stocks were little changed following the jobless claims data, a day after a rally in tech stocks drove the S&P 500 , opens new tab and Nasdaq Composite , opens new tab indices to all-time highs. The U.S dollar was largely flat against a basket of currencies.
Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, increased at a 0.2% annualized rate in the first quarter, revised down from an initial estimate of 0.3% one month ago. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated a revision down to 0.1%. The near stalling of productivity in the first quarter did not further that cause, though some economists had cautioned after the initial Labor Department estimate was published last month that the data had been influenced by a seasonal quirk and the trend of improving productivity might still hold up.
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