Initial jobless claims are at a 15-year low
On Thursday, the weekly report on initial jobless claims showed claims totaled 274,000 last week, right in-line with expectations for 270,000. Firm retail sales data also released Thursday added to a sense of economic strength.
Average hourly pay increased just 2.1 percent in July from 12 months earlier, far below the 3.5 percent to 4 percent gains that have historically occurred in healthy economies. A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the data and no states had been estimated. Estimates of the 50 economists ranged from 260,000 to 281,000.
Claims hit a low of 255,000 in mid-July, the lowest level since the fall of 1973, but have since rebounded a bit.
Yet the four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped 1,750 to 266,250, the lowest since April 15, 2000.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 15,000 to 2.273 million in the week ended August 1st.
Though claims have grown for 3 smooth sessions, they usually have continued to be under the 300,000 tolerance, and that is of a toning work economies, for 23 successive sessions.
Limited dismissals have been accompanied by steady hiring. U.S. employers added a seasonally adjusted 215,000 jobs to payrolls in July, the Labor Department said last week. The policy-making Federal Open Market Committee next meets on September 16-17.
New York Fed President William Dudley said on Wednesday (August 12th) that the central bank is approaching the moment when it can start raising interest rates.