The number of Americans filing first-time jobless benefits fell sharply last week to a seven-year low, a sign the labour market stateside may be stabilizing after a rocky spring.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000 in the week ended May 10, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. That was below estimates. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast new claims would rise slightly to 320,000.
Last week's reading put new claims at its lowest reading since May 2007, before the recession began.
Jobless claims data has been volatile in recent weeks, a factor many economists attribute to the shifting date of Easter, which fell on April 20 this year and on March 31 last year. But a longer-run trend that evens out weekly volatility — the four-week moving average — fell slightly by 2,000 to 323,250 last week.
Moving holidays can affect the timing of applications of new benefits, and that in turn can distort U.S. Labor Department data. As a result, some recent claims data has been surprisingly high and others particularly low.
A department analyst said there were no special factors in the data for last week.
Meanwhile, the number of continuing unemployment benefits — those drawn by workers for more than a week — fell by 9,000 to 2,667,000 in week ended May 3. Those figures are reported with a one-week lag and marked the lowest level since December 2007.
The improving figures come after the department said separately that employers added 288,000 jobs in April, marking one of the fastest paces since the recession ended. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3%. Steadily falling claims figures typically coincide with employers adding more jobs. One economist has estimated May payroll gains could be around 250,000 if claims continue their decline.
