Financial News: U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Decrease To Nearly Four-M

U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Decrease To Nearly Four-Month Low

(RTTNews) - First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a nearly four-month low in the week ended September 14th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims slid to 219,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level of 231,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 230,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decline, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 216,000 in the week ended May 18th.

"Initial jobless claims fell to the lowest level since May last week, but we don't read much into one week's decline because seasonal factors may have played a role," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

She added, "The Federal Reserve yesterday sent a strong signal that it will likely lower rates another 50bps this year to preserve current labor market conditions and one week's claims data doesn't alter that."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also dipped to 227,500, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 231,000.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell by 14,000 to 1.829 million in the week ended September 7th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also declined to 1,844,250, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average of 1,850,750.

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