Goldman Sachs expects the number of initial jobless claims in the U.S. to rise to 235,000.

[Goldman Sachs expects U.S. initial jobless claims to rise to 235,000] Goldman Sachs Group's analysis of state-level data during the federal government shutdown indicates an increase in the number of people applying for unemployment benefits in the U.S. last week. Economists at Goldman Sachs, led by Jan Hatzius, stated in a research report that the number of initial jobless claims for the week ending October 4 rose to 235,000. The estimated number for the previous week was about 224,000. Goldman Sachs adjusted the available raw state-level data using the seasonal factors pre-released by the U.S. Department of Labor. Due to the federal government shutdown, the Labor Department did not release the weekly report on Thursday but provided downloadable data for most states. Economists also found that for the week ending September 27, the estimated number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits increased slightly from 1.91 million the previous week to 1.92 million. Goldman Sachs economists estimated the initial claims for Hawaii and Massachusetts and assumed these applications were consistent with the latest reported figures. (Jin10)