The Labor Department reported a decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ending May 11th, after a notable rise in the previous week. According to the report released on Thursday, initial jobless claims fell to 222,000, which is a decrease of 10,000 from the prior week's revised figure of 232,000.
Economists had predicted that jobless claims would drop to 220,000 from the initially reported 231,000 for the preceding week. This decrease follows a significant rise in jobless claims, which reached their highest level since the week ending August 26, 2023, in the previous report.
Additionally, the less volatile four-week moving average of jobless claims increased to 217,750, up by 2,500 from the previous week's revised average of 215,250.
In terms of continuing claims, representing the number of individuals receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, there was an increase of 13,000, bringing the total to 1.794 million for the week ending May 4th. However, the four-week moving average of continuing claims edged down slightly to 1,779,250, a reduction of 750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,780,000.
