Financial News: U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Slump To Lowest Level

U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Slump To Lowest Level Since 1969

(RTTNews) - The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended April 25th.

The report said initial jobless claims slid to 189,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's revised level of 215,000.

Economists had expected initial jobless claims to edge down to 212,000 from the 214,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the much bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims slumped to their lowest level since hitting 182,000 in the week ended September 6, 1969.

"We won't infer anything from one week's outsized decline in initial claims, but the trend of recent weeks is consistent with a low rate of layoffs," said Grace Zwemmer, U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

"The US/Israel war with Iran has made the labor market more vulnerable, but jobless claims remain consistent with stable labor-market conditions," she added. "That said, the war's negative spillover effects on the labor market will come with a delay."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also slipped to 207,500, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 211,000.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell by 23,000 to 1.785 million in the week ended April 18th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dropped to 1,797,250, a decrease of 11,750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,809,000.

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