The amounts: The number of first-time jobless claims dropped by 7,000 to 227,000 in the week ending August 10, the Labor Department said Thursday. The amount hasn’t been this low since early July.
The Wall Street Journal asked economists and found that they thought the number of new claims would go up by 3,000 to 235,000.
It was originally thought that claims would drop by 17,000 to 233,000 last week, but they actually fell by 16,000 to 234,000.
Important facts: The average number of claims over the last four weeks dropped by 4,500 to 236,500.
One million people were already getting unemployment benefits at the end of the week of August 3, which is 7,000 less than the week before.
Without any changes, the number of claims went down by 4,500 to 199,530. Since early June, that’s the first time claims have been less than 200,000. In the same week in 2023, there were 213,803 claims.
Economists say, “The data should be watched for signs of a more material weakening in the labor market going forward, which would have effects on [Federal Reserve] policy.” At the moment, they point to a small slowing of the economy, not a decline. Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said, “Today’s outcome does not call for an emergency or wide-scale Fed rate cuts.”
What the market thought: Stocks SPX 1.57% were expected to go up when they opened on Thursday. This 10-year Treasury note’s yield went up from 3.933% to 3.91%.
