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The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in four months last week. Jobless claims slid by 12,000, to 219,000, for the week of Sept 14, the Labour Department reported Thursday. That's fewer than economist expectations for 230,000 new filings. The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of weekly volatility, fell by 3,500 to 227,500. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits fell by 14,000 to about 1.83 million for the week of Sept. 7. That's the fewest since early June. Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered largely representative of layoffs.
The rally in IT stocks came on the heels of a major drop in US jobless claims, which fell to 233,000 for the week ending August 3-the largest decline in nearly a year.
Robust wage growth, though good news for workers, could feed into the already elevated inflation, increasing the risk of sustained high inflation, according to economists
In the 12 months through January, the CPI jumped 7.5%, the biggest year-on-year increase since February 1982
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell but remained at a historically high 847,000 last week, a sign that layoffs keep coming as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.
Consumers cut back on purchases of goods like new motor vehicles, clothing and footwear
The number of Americans filing new unemployment benefits claims fell to a seven-month low last week, but the pace of decline has slowed and further improvement could be limited by a raging pandemic
Despite claims dropping to their lowest since March, they remained above their peak of 665,000 during the 2007-2009 Great Recession
The new report also showed that the four-week moving average, a method to iron out data volatility, decreased by 63,000 to reach 1.4 million
The Commerce Department said the trade deficit tumbled 7.6% to $47.2 billion, the smallest since May 2018, as both imports and exports of goods declined
US financial markets were little moved by the data as investors awaited November's employment report
Claims in Texas surged in the wake of Harvey, which disrupted oil, natural gas and petrochemical production
Claims shot up 62,000 in the week ended Sept. 2 after Harvey left some workers temporarily unemployed