U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Decrease To Two-Month Low

(RTTNews) - A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday unexpectedly showed an extended pullback by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended September 20th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 218,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level of 232,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 235,000 from the 231,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Jobless claims pulled back further off the nearly four-year high set in the first week of September, falling to their lowest level since hitting 217,000 in the week ended July 19th.

"The latest jobless claims data offer some assurance that labor market conditions are not deteriorating and support our forecast for the Federal Reserve to remain hold at its October meeting and to delay the next rate cut until December," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also slipped to 237,500, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 240,250.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also edged down by 2,000 to 1.926 million in the week ended September 13th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dipped to 1,930,000, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 1,934,500.

"Continued claims are still at a level indicative of a slowing pace of hiring but have started to trend lower," said Vanden Houten.

Next Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on the employment situation in the month of September.