Down by 33,000 from the Previous Week
Largest Drop in Four Years
Last week, the number of new unemployment claims in the United States dropped sharply, defying expectations.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor on September 18 (local time), the number of new unemployment claims for the week of September 7 to 13 was recorded at 231,000. This figure represents a decrease of 33,000 from the previous week’s 264,000, marking the largest drop in four years. It also fell below Bloomberg’s forecast of 240,000.
The number of continuing unemployment claims, which counts those who have filed for unemployment benefits for two weeks or more, stood at 1.92 million for the period from August 31 to September 6. This is a slight decrease from the previous week’s 1.927 million and is also below the market forecast of 1.95 million.
This trend runs counter to the recent increase in unemployment claims. Wall Street is closely monitoring employment and inflation indicators to assess the broader economic impact of aggressive tariff policies. As a series of indicators have recently shown a sharp decline in new hiring and a rapidly cooling labor market, the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to a range of 4.0% to 4.25% the previous day.
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