First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased in the week ended October 11th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday, with initial jobless claims falling to their lowest level in over fourteen years.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 264,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 287,000. The decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge up to 290,000.
With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 259,000 in the week ended April 15, 2000.
The Labor Department said the four-week moving average also fell to 283,500, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 287,750.
The drop pulled the less volatile four-week moving average down to its lowest level since dipping to 283,500 in June of 2000.
On the other hand, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose to 2.389 million in the week ended October 4th from the preceding week’s revised level of 2.382 million.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims still fell to 2,403,750, a decrease of 10,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 2,414,500.
With the decrease, the four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped to its lowest level since June of 2006.
Earlier this month, the Labor Department released a separate report showing much stronger than expected job growth in the month of September.
The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 248,000 jobs in September following an upwardly revised increase of 180,000 jobs in August. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 215,000 jobs.
Partly reflecting the stronger than expected job growth, the unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in September from 6.1 percent in August. Economists had expected to rate to hold at 6.1 percent.
With the unexpected decrease, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since hitting 5.8 percent in July of 2008.
by RTT Staff Writer
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U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop To 14-Year Low
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