After reporting modest increases in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the two previous weeks, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims pulled back by much more than expected in the week ended March 5th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims dropped to 259,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 277,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 272,000 from the 278,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting a matching number in the week ended October 17th.
The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also dipped to 267,500, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 270,000.
The modest decrease pulled the four-week moving average down to its lowest level since hitting 262,750 in the week ended October 31st.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell by 32,000 to 2.225 million in the week ended February 27th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims slipped to 2,252,000, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 2,256,500.
Last Friday, the Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report showed a jump in employment but a modest drop in wages.
The report said total non-farm employment jumped by 242,000 jobs in February compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 190,000 jobs.
Job growth in December and January was also upwardly revised to 271,000 and 172,000, respectively, reflecting a net upward revision of 30,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department also said average hourly employee earnings dipped 3 cents or 0.1 percent to $25.35. Earnings were up by 2.2 percent year-over-year.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com