US Unemployment Claims Improves by 5,000

• US Unemployment Claims Improves by 5,000 

The US labor market continued to add jobs as initial jobless claims improved again last week.

The unemployment claims dropped 5,000 last week to 249,000. Making it the lowest level since mid-April, and 43-year low on four-week average.

This signaled that the labor market remained strong ahead of Friday’s non-farm payrolls report and that employees are enjoying job security despite slow economic growth.

“There’s no question about it, these are good numbers,” David Sloan, senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York. “The implication here is that the payrolls trend will remain healthy. The big picture is consistent with the Fed raising rates at some point this year, most likely in December.”

Overall, 2.06 million unemployed Americans are collecting unemployment checks, down 7 percent from a year ago. While the less volatile four-week average fell 2,500 to 253,500, lowest since December 1973.

Unemployment claims have been below 300,000 for 83 consecutive weeks — the longest streak since 1970 and a level economists consider typical for a healthy labor market.