US jobless claims hit 1-month highs

The year-on-year inflation rate in the United States accelerated its rise to 3.2% in July from 3% the previous month, which represents the first rise in 13 months, although less intense than anticipated by the market consensus, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the country's Department of Labor.

In the month of July, food became more expensive by 4.9%, while energy became cheaper by 12.5%.

The core inflation rate, which excludes the impact of the volatility of food and energy prices, reached 4.7%, one tenth less than in June.

The CPI data for July is the first of the two reports on the evolution of inflation that will be released before the Federal Reserve meeting on September 19 and 20.

According to CME Group, the US central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at the current range of 5.25% to 5.50% at the September meeting, after raising 525 basis points since March 2022. .

On the other hand, the United States Department of Labor has reported this Thursday that initial applications for unemployment benefits reached 248,000 applications last week, the highest since the beginning of July, after a weekly increase of 21,000 requests for help.

Likewise, the number of people who received some type of unemployment subsidy stood at 1,684 million at the end of July, which represents a weekly decrease of 8,000 beneficiaries.

Last week, the Labor Department reported that the US economy added 187,000 new nonfarm jobs in July, up slightly from the 185,000 new jobs created in June, but below market consensus expectations, which It pointed to the creation of some 200,000 new jobs, although the unemployment rate fell by one tenth, to 3.5%.

Thus, despite the fact that the US labor market has created jobs for 31 consecutive months, the data for the month of July confirmed the weakening of the pace of new job creation and suggests that the tightening of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy is beginning to also have an effect on hiring.