But borrowing costs could remain elevated for a while, with other data on Thursday showing labor costs surging in the first quarter as worker productivity slumped. The Federal Reserve raised itsinterest rate by another 25 basis points to the 5.00%-5.25% range on Wednesday, and signaled it may pause further increases, though it kept a hawkish bias.
There was a surge in filings in Kentucky and Massachusetts as well as a notable gain in California, which offset a plunge of 9,358 in New York as the boost to claims in the state from spring breaks was unwound. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told a press conference on Wednesday that "the labor market remains very tight," but noted there were "some signs that supply and demand in the labor market are coming back into better balance."
According to a Reuters survey of economists, nonfarm payrolls likely increased by 180,000 jobs last month after rising by 236,000 in March. The unemployment rate is forecast to have climbed to 3.6% from 3.5% in March. Nonfarm productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, dropped at a 2.7% annualized rate in the first quarter after increasing at a 1.6% pace in the October-December period, the Labor Department said in another report on Thursday.