The U.S. Department of Labor has released its most recent report on weekly jobless claims. For the week ended February 14, initial claims came in 21,000 below the previously revised reading to 283,000. That compared to the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 290,000 claims. The previous reading was revised to 304,000 claims.
The four-week moving average was recorded at approximately 283,250, which was a decrease of only 6,500 from the previous, revised reading of 289,750 claims.
The number of claims fell below the 300,000 level in late July and only rose above it again briefly in January. This was, for a while, the longest that the four-week moving average had remained below the 300,000 level since 2000, and it has now dropped below that mark again.
According to the Labor Department, no special factors had an impact on this past week’s reported initial jobless claims.
Continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag, increased by 58,000 to 2.425 million for the week that ended February 7.
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