The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week rose by 8,000 to 365,000, which was less than economists’ prediction of 370,000. Annual temporary plant shutdowns have made it difficult to get a clear picture of the labor market's health for July through jobless claims numbers. The government is expected to reveal Friday in a separate report that employers added 100,000 new workers to their payrolls last month, according to surveys by Reuters and Bloomberg News. That would be up from 80,000 in June. The unemployment rate is expected to have remained stuck at 8.2 percent for a third month, Bloomberg reported.
