Washington: New claims for jobless benefits in the United States fell precipitously at the close of March, posting their biggest weekly drop in nearly two years, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
For the week ending April 1, new claims for unemployment insurance stood at a seasonally adjusted 234,000, down 25,000 from the prior week, the biggest weekly decline since April 2015.
Analysts had been expecting a decrease of only 14,000 claims.
The less volatile four-week moving average was 250,000 new claims, down 4,500 from the prior week.
Though they see large weekly swings, unemployment claims can be used to gauge the prevalence of layoffs and the health of labor markets. The level of weekly jobless claims has remained below 300,000 for more than two years, the longest such streak recorded since 1970.
For the week ending March 25, continuing claims for unemployment benefits fell 24,000 to 2,028,000, according to the Labor Department. The four-week moving average for this figure also fell 7,750 to 2,023,000 – its lowest level in nearly 17 years.
The weekly figures come a day before the Labor Department is due to publish monthly job creation numbers, with analysts expecting another strong month of hiring in a relatively solid economy.
The world’s largest economy has steadily pumped out jobs since mid-2016, with economists pointing to an increasingly tight labor market in which employers fear they may not be able to replace workers they let go. -- AFP