New Jobless Claims Dipped to 457,000 in Week Ending June 19

First-time applications for unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 to 457,000 in the week ending June 19, the Labor Department said. But the four-week average barely budged, dropping by 1,500 to 462,750 from a week earlier.

Gains in the labor market have remained weak all year, even as payrolls creep up. The number of people continuing to receive benefits fell by 45,000 to 4.55 million in the week ended June 12.

"Claims have been surprisingly sticky for several weeks now," Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, told Bloomberg News before the report. "It's a reflection of the amount of cautiousness on the part of American businesses."