In a good sign for the job market, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week to their lowest level since July 10.
Initial unemployment claims dropped by 11,000 to 445,000 in the week ended Oct. 2, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday. New claims for the previous week, ended Sept. 25, were revised upward slightly to 456,000 from 453,000.
Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted new claims would rise by 2,000.
The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, also fell by 3,000 to 455,750 from the prior week's revised average of 458,750.
Although claims fell last week, the number of people filing for jobless benefits and the unemployment rate still remain high amid weak economic growth.
The high jobless rate is curtailing spending--data Monday showed that pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes is slowly stabilizing, but remain well below figures from a year ago.
On Friday the Labor Department will be releasing its monthly jobs report for September. While economists are expecting to see fewer payroll cuts than reported in August, they still anticipate a decrease of 10,000 U.S. jobs and a slight rise in unemployment.
Data reported on Wednesday from payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) also looked a bit grim. That survey found that private employers unexpectedly cut 39,000 jobs in September.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Monday signaled he would support further bond purchases to boost a weak economy, though Fed officials are split on a possible move to ease financial market conditions. In an interview recently with The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he supports a new Treasury bond purchase program amid major concerns about the high unemployment rate.
In other news in the Thursday claims report, the number of continuing claims -- those drawn by workers for more than one week in the week ended Sept. 25 -- fell by 48,000 to 4,462,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,510,000. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
The unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance for the week ended Sept. 25 was 3.5%, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the prior week's revised rate of 3.6%.
The report's state-by-state breakdown of new claims for the week ended Sept. 25 shows that the largest decrease in claims took place in New York, which saw a decline of 3,703 claims due to fewer layoffs in the construction and service industries.
California had the largest increase in claims with a rise of 8,960 due to layoffs in the service industry.
A Labor Department economist said Thursday that claims for the Virgin Islands were estimated in this latest report.
Initial unemployment claims dropped by 11,000 to 445,000 in the week ended Oct. 2, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday. New claims for the previous week, ended Sept. 25, were revised upward slightly to 456,000 from 453,000.
Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted new claims would rise by 2,000.
The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, also fell by 3,000 to 455,750 from the prior week's revised average of 458,750.
Although claims fell last week, the number of people filing for jobless benefits and the unemployment rate still remain high amid weak economic growth.
The high jobless rate is curtailing spending--data Monday showed that pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes is slowly stabilizing, but remain well below figures from a year ago.
On Friday the Labor Department will be releasing its monthly jobs report for September. While economists are expecting to see fewer payroll cuts than reported in August, they still anticipate a decrease of 10,000 U.S. jobs and a slight rise in unemployment.
Data reported on Wednesday from payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) also looked a bit grim. That survey found that private employers unexpectedly cut 39,000 jobs in September.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Monday signaled he would support further bond purchases to boost a weak economy, though Fed officials are split on a possible move to ease financial market conditions. In an interview recently with The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said he supports a new Treasury bond purchase program amid major concerns about the high unemployment rate.
In other news in the Thursday claims report, the number of continuing claims -- those drawn by workers for more than one week in the week ended Sept. 25 -- fell by 48,000 to 4,462,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,510,000. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
The unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance for the week ended Sept. 25 was 3.5%, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the prior week's revised rate of 3.6%.
The report's state-by-state breakdown of new claims for the week ended Sept. 25 shows that the largest decrease in claims took place in New York, which saw a decline of 3,703 claims due to fewer layoffs in the construction and service industries.
California had the largest increase in claims with a rise of 8,960 due to layoffs in the service industry.
A Labor Department economist said Thursday that claims for the Virgin Islands were estimated in this latest report.