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NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers

filing new claims for unemployment insurance rose unexpectedly

last week, reflecting seasonal volatility, according to a

government report on Thursday.

Story: Table:

KEY POINTS:

* Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 18,000 to

a seasonally adjusted 460,000, the Labor Department said.

* Analysts polled by Reuters expected claims to edge down to

435,000 from a previously reported 439,000 the prior week.

* A Labor Department official attributed the rise in claims to

seasonal volatility, mainly from the Easter holiday, and noted

there were shutdowns in two states.

* A holiday on March 31 in California also had an effect on

claims, he said.

COMMENTS:

MICHAEL STRAUSS, CHIEF ECONOMIST, COMMONFUND, WILTON,

CONNECTICUT:

‘The numbers are not significant. We have some distortions

associated with when Easter and Good Friday fall, that the

seasonal patterns don’t necessarily do a great job either the

week before the holidays or the week after.

‘It’s possible because of the heavy flooding we had in

parts of the United States a week or two ago that some of what

should have shown up as claims during that period didn’t occur

because people didn’t go to the unemployment offices. Now

they’re showing up in a little bit of a lag basis.’

JOHN CANALLY, ECONOMIST/INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, LPL FINANCIAL,

BOSTON:

‘It looks like this stem from difficulties with seasonally

adjustment with Easter. The four-week average is moving in the

right direction so that suggests decent growth in the coming

months. I expect claims to snap back down lower next week after

the Easter effect.

‘The labor market is improving but it still has a ways to

go. There is underlying strength emerging. People realize that

Easter has distorted the data.

‘I’m actually more impressed with the monthly retail sales

numbers. Heading into 2010, people had underestimated the

consumers.’

WAYNE KAUFMAN, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST, JOHN THOMAS FINANCIAL,

NEW YORK:

‘The jobless claims are a little disappointing. Based on

the recent news we’ve had from the service industries, you’d

expect that we would begin to see hiring right about now. The

backlog of orders in the services industries was the highest

since August 2007, so at a point, employers are going to have

to make the decision to add employees or risk losing business.

Obviously they can’t tell people to wait a long time to get

their needs fulfilled. So the claims data is disappointing. We

are in the time when we need to see jobs created or the

unemployment rate start to come down.’

LINDSAY PIEGZA, ECONOMIST, FTN FINANCIAL, NEW YORK:

‘It’s really surprising because we did have such a strong

March non-farm payroll report which did suggest the labor

market had turned around. It certainly doesn’t reverse the

improving trend we’ve seen over the past few weeks but it is

troubling that we aren’t continuing this trend.

‘This does question the idea that perhaps the March report

was an anomaly, perhaps a bit too strong.

‘This is certainly the firs look at the April jobs market

and it does not start off the second quarter on a positive

note.

‘Looking at continuing claims we did take a larger step

down in continuing claims. What this suggests is there are

still several different variables pushing against each other.

We’re going to continue to see struggles in the labor market as

all of these different factors come into play.

‘I think the market’s going to take this with a grain of

salt and wait until there’s more information.’

WIN THIN, CURRENCY STRATEGIST, BROWN BROTHERS HARRIMAN, NEW

YORK:

‘It looks mixed. Think people will be looking more towards

the retail sales data next week. That and the inflation data

are the big data points. The market is comfortable with the

U.S. labor market. Greece and to a lesser extent China are back

in the forefront right now. The U.S. is going to outperform the

rest of the world.’

MARKET REACTION:

STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures ad to losses

BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices edge higher

DOLLAR: U.S. dollar extends losses versus

Keywords: USA ECONOMY/JOBLESS

(Reporting by New York Treasuries Desk; +1-646 223-6300)

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