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Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were unchanged at
a seasonally adjusted 276,000 for the week ended Nov. 7, the
Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims were
unrevised.
Claims are not too far from levels last seen in the early 1970s.
They have now held below the 300,000 threshold for 36
consecutive weeks, the longest stretch in years. Claims below
this level are usually associated with a healthy jobs market.
Labor market strength, marked by a surge in job growth in
October and a jobless rate that is now in a range many Fed
officials see as consistent with full employment, has bolstered
expectations of a liftoff in the U.S. central bank's benchmark
overnight interest rate at the Dec. 15-16 policy meeting.
The Fed has kept its short-term interest rate near zero since
December 2008. Last month, nonfarm payrolls recorded their
largest gain since December 2014 and the unemployment rate fell
to a 7-1/2-year low of 5.0 percent.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected claims to drop to
270,000 last week. A Labor Department analyst said there were no
special factors influencing the data and no states had been
estimated.
The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better
measure of labor market trends as it strips out week-to-week
volatility, rose 5,000 to 267,750 last week, still close to a
42-year low.
The claims report showed the number of people still receiving
benefits after an initial week of aid increased 5,000 to 2.17
million in the week ended Oct. 31. The four-week moving average
of continuing claims edged up 2,250 to 2.17 million.
((Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci))
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