US initial jobless claims drop to lowest level in five months

Lower than expectations

The number of Americans filing jobless claims fell to their lowest level since April, down 16,000 from the previous week's revised level to 193,000.

This was below the pre-pandemic average of 218,000 in 2019 and was lower than expectations by economists polled by the Wall Street Journal, who had estimated that new claims would rise 2,000 from last week's initial estimate of 213,000. US unemployment rate rises to 3.7% in August According to the unemployment claims report from the Labour Department for the week ending 24 September, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits fell by 29,000 to 1.35 million. The four-week moving average fell by 8,750 to 207,000. William Marsters, senior sales trader at Saxo UK, said: "The...