A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday unexpectedly showed a continued decline by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended August 10th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 227,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous weeks revised level of 234,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 235,000 from the 233,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Jobless claims continued to give back ground after reaching their highest level in almost a year in the week ended July 27th.
After being propped up by special factors for several weeks, initial jobless fell in the week ended August 10 to their lowest level since early July, said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.
She added, We never read too much into one weeks claims report, but the data are consistent with our view that while the labor market is softening it isnt weak enough to warrant more than a 25bps rate cut at the Feds September meeting.
The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 236,500, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous weeks revised average of 241,000.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also slipped by 7,000 to 1.864 million in the week ended August 3rd, pulling back off their highest level since November 2021.
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of continuing claims crept up by 1,000 to 1.862 million, reaching the highest level since November 2021.