Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Jump to 744,000, Much Worse Than Expected

Economists had forecast a decline to 680,000 from the previous week’s 719,000. This is the second consecutive week in which initial jobless claims moved up in contradiction to expectations. The upper end of the range of forecasts in the Econoday survey was 705,000.

Jobless claims can be volatile week to week so economists like to look at the four-week average. This rose by 2,500 to 723,750.

Continuing claims, which get reported with a week’s lag, fell to 3,734,000, a decrease of 16,000, in the week ended March 27.

Including new...