The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, offering reassurance that the bottom is not falling out of the labor market despite signs of slower growth.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000 the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s number was revised to show 3,000 more applications than previously reported.
Analysts had expected 351,000 new claims last week.
A Labor Department analyst said there was nothing unusual in the data and no states had estimated their claims.
The report runs counter to several weeks of signals that economic activity has softened over the last two months, a phenomena economists have dubbed the spring swoon because it also happened in the previous two years.
The four-week moving average for new claims, a less volatile measure of labor market trends, fell 4,500 to 357,500.
That could help to further ease concerns of a deterioration in labor market conditions after nonfarm payrolls posted their smallest increase in nine months in March. However, claims around this time of the year are difficult to adjust for seasonal swings, so analysts will be cautious about extrapolating too much from today’s data.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor
via Jobless claims fall, labor market recovery advances | Reuters.
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