Forexpros – The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell unexpectedly, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 5 fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, defying expectations for an increase of 1,000 to 369,000.
The previous week’s figure was revised up to 368,000 from 365,000.
Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in 26 of the past 28 weeks, though lately claims have been pushing higher from the 350,000 associated with above-average job growth.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended April 28 fell to 3.229 million from an upwardly revised 3.290 million. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 3.278 million.
The four-week moving average was 379,000, a decrease of 5,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 384,250.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar remained lower against the euro, with EUR/USD rising 0.23% to trade at 1.2957.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures held on to gains following the data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a rise of 0.45%, S&P 500 futures climbed 0.7%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures added 0.55%.
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