Down 14,000 from the Previous Week
Last week, the number of new unemployment benefit claims in the United States dropped significantly more than expected.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor on September 25 (local time), the number of new unemployment benefit claims for the week of September 14 to 20 was 218,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's 232,000. This figure also came in below the market forecast of 233,000.
The number of continuing claims, which refers to those who have applied for unemployment benefits for more than two weeks, stood at 1,926,000 for the week of September 7 to 13, maintaining a similar level to the previous week's 1,928,000. This was also slightly below the market estimate of 1,930,000.
This helped ease some concerns that the labor market has been cooling rapidly in recent weeks. Previously, the Federal Reserve had cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to a range of 4.0% to 4.25% on September 17, citing a slowdown in employment.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy is showing unexpectedly strong growth. On the same day, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) under the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the final figure for real gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter increased at an annualized rate of 3.8% compared to the previous quarter. This is 0.5 percentage points higher than the preliminary estimate of 3.3% and also exceeds the Reuters forecast of 3.3%. The stronger-than-expected expansion was driven by a significant reduction in the trade deficit due to decreased imports and a recovery in consumer spending.
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