Initial Claims Steady at Four-Year Low, Continue Winning Streak
Tweet
Share
E-mail
Americans filing for unemployment insurance held flat near a four-year low, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor Thursday.
Claimants for the week ended February 18th were firm at 351,000, the fewest since March 2008. The number came in below views calling for a slight pop to 355,000. This is the fourth-straight week in which claims were better than expected.
The four-week moving average of claims fell about 7,000 to 359,000, while the number of folks continuing to get benefits for the week ended February 11th dropped 52,000 to 3.39 million. Economists were expecting a continuing claims reading of 3.455 million.
Americans on emergency benefits fell 69,000 to 3.41 million, according to data from the week of February 4th.
The job front seems to be improving as less people are being fired (which leads to initial claims). With nonfarm payrolls coming in better than expected for January and unemployment dropping 0.2 points to 8.3 percent, things appear to be shaping up for the U.S. economy.
Despite the continued encouraging points from the labor market, US stocks have opened modestly lower. The Dow is currently down 34 points to 12,904, the Nasdaq is down about 5.5 points, and the S&P 500 is down about 3 points.
Claimants for the week ended February 18th were firm at 351,000, the fewest since March 2008. The number came in below views calling for a slight pop to 355,000. This is the fourth-straight week in which claims were better than expected.
The four-week moving average of claims fell about 7,000 to 359,000, while the number of folks continuing to get benefits for the week ended February 11th dropped 52,000 to 3.39 million. Economists were expecting a continuing claims reading of 3.455 million.
Americans on emergency benefits fell 69,000 to 3.41 million, according to data from the week of February 4th.
The job front seems to be improving as less people are being fired (which leads to initial claims). With nonfarm payrolls coming in better than expected for January and unemployment dropping 0.2 points to 8.3 percent, things appear to be shaping up for the U.S. economy.
Despite the continued encouraging points from the labor market, US stocks have opened modestly lower. The Dow is currently down 34 points to 12,904, the Nasdaq is down about 5.5 points, and the S&P 500 is down about 3 points.
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Economic Data, Insiders' BlogRelated Entities
Initial Jobless Claims, Nonfarm Payrolls, Standard & Poor'sSign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
