The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 12,000 last week to 237,000, significantly below Wall Street’s forecast for 250,000 new claims.
Jobless claims are a proxy for layoffs. Although the economy has slowed down in recent months, many employers are still looking for workers. The unemployment rate is just 3.4 percent and employers had 9.8 million vacant positions at the end of May. The number of workers quitting their jobs rose to four million in May, according to the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary.
Unemployment typically rises when the economy weakens. Earlier this year, claims climbed from the historically low levels seen last year. Since then, however, claims have bounced around 250,000.
The four-week moving average of claims, which smoothes out week-to-week volatility, fell to 246,750 from 253,500 last week.
Continuing claims, which get reported with a one-week delay, rose by 11,000 to 1,729,000. That is a very low level of unemployment claimed by historical standards.