United States jobless claims fall to 273000, match 42-year low

The upward momentum for the markets comes following the release of a slew of USA economic data, including a Labor Department report showing an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims.

Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., decreased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 255,000 in the week ended October 10, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Applications last touched that level in July, but before that hadn’t been so low since November 1973.

The four-week moving average decreases the volatility of the weekly numbers.

Richard Perry, Market Analyst at Hantec Markets, has 15 years’ experience working in the city of London.

Bloomberg reported claims fell more than the median forecast in its survey of 45 economists, which projected claims would fall to 270,000.

Claims levels have generally been falling since 2009. Weekly claims settled below the key 300,000 benchmark in late February and they’ve been hovering near the lowest level since 1973 for the past three months.

That was the lowest reading since November 2000 and suggested the long-term unemployed were finding jobs.

American workers filed the fewest unemployment claims in 42 years last week, a sign that the labor market remains healthy despite a slower pace of hiring over the past couple of months. Continuing jobless claims for the week ending October 3 declined to a fresh post-recession low in this morning’s report, to 2.158mn from 2.208mn last week. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.