US Unemployment Claims Improve by 8,000 Last Week

The number of Americans filing for unemployment claims improved last week to a two-month low, indicating that the labor market is still strong and adding jobs.

The unemployment claims declined 8,000 to 252,000 for the week ended Sept. 17, according to the Labor Department report released on Thursday. This is the lowest unemployment claims since mid-July and 81 consecutive weeks that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold. Economists had earlier predicted 262,000 unemployment claims for last week.

On a four-week moving average that irons out week to week volatility, the unemployment claims dropped 2,250 to 258,500 last week.

Although, the rate of job growth has slowed from a monthly average of 186,000 recorded in the first seven months of the year, it is well above the 100,000 that Fed Chair said is required to absorb new entrants into the job market.

However, the Federal Reserve left interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, but signaled that it could raise rates by the end of the year if the economy pick up and the labor market continued to progress.

The US dollar dropped against all its counterparts to trade lower than the previous week when the odds of the Fed raising rates was higher.