More people in the United States sought unemployment benefits last week, the government reported Thursday, suggesting that hiring remains slow. The Labor Department said weekly jobless claims rose 6,000 to 386,000. The four-week moving average of jobless claims, considered a better measure of labor trends because it is less volatile, rose for the third consecutive week to 382,000, the highest level in six weeks. Weekly jobless claims are a measure of the pace of layoffs. When they drop below 375,000, it typically suggests that hiring is strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate, currently above 8 percent. Jobless claims fell steadily during the autumn and winter but have leveled off since then. At the same time, hiring has slowed, raising worries about the pace of the economic recovery. Employers added an average of only 96,000 jobs per month in the past three months, down from an average of 252,000 in the previous three months. Weaker hiring also pushed up the unemployment rate in May to 8.2 percent, the first increase in almost a year. Faster job creation is critical in order to accelerate growth. More jobs mean more income for consumers, which may lead to higher spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.
