United States jobless claims remain low in September survey week
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast initial claims to rise to 275,000. The previous week, claims stood at an unrevised level of 264,000.
“These readings suggest no significant change in the continuing low level of layoff activity”, said John Hoff, an economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Claims data tends to be uneven from week to week, but have generally been falling since 2009 and have held at historically low levels for months now. This was down marginally, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said again that there were no special factors which influenced or skewed the weekly claims report.
The four-week average is considered more reliable as it smooths out sharp fluctuations in the more volatile weekly figures and, as such, is seen as a more accurate indicator of the health of the labour market. Continuing jobless claims declined by 1,000 to 2.24 million in the week ended September 12.
The job market’s recovery is a key reason Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen has indicated that the Fed may raise short-term interest rates by the end of this year. While that was the lowest level since 2008, other signs of slack remain in the labor market, including weak wage growth and the lowest share of Americans participating in the labor force since the 1970s. These data are reported with a one-week lag. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent, a seven-year low.