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Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decreased 13,000
to a seasonally adjusted 253,000 for the week ended April 9, the
Labor Department said on Thursday. That matched the level for
early March, which was the lowest since November 1973.
Claims for the week ending April 2 were revised to show 1,000
fewer applications received than previously reported.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to
270,000 in the latest week. Jobless claims have now been below
300,000, a threshold associated with healthy labor market
conditions, for 58 weeks, the longest stretch since 1973.
But with inflation tame and wages rising moderately as the
firming labor market attracts both previously discouraged and
new job seekers, the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise
interest rates again before the second half of the year.
The Fed increased its benchmark overnight interest rate in
December for the first time in nearly a decade and policymakers
recently forecast only two more rate hikes this year.
A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors
influencing last week's claims data and no states had been
estimated.
The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better
measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week
volatility, fell 1,500 to 265,000 last week.
The claims report also showed the number of people still
receiving benefits after an initial week of aid declined 18,000
to 2.17 million in the week ended April 2, the lowest level
since mid-October.
The four-week average of the so-called continuing claims fell
10,250 to 2.18 million, the lowest level since mid-November
2000.
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