U.S. Initial Jobless Claims at 228,000, Below Expectations

Minseung Kang

Summary

The U.S. Department of Labor announced that the number of new jobless claims was 228,000, below expectations.
The number of continuous jobless claims was also lower than the market expectation at 1,879,000.
It was reported that this suggests the labor market is cooling down.

Last week, the number of new jobless claims in the U.S. fell short of market expectations.

According to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on the 8th (local time), this week's initial jobless claims were 228,000, below the expected 231,000.

The number of continuous jobless claims, which refers to those who have claimed unemployment benefits for two consecutive weeks, was also 1,879,000, below the expected 1,890,000.

The number of initial jobless claims is an indicator that can gauge the overheating of the U.S. labor market. An increase in jobless claims can be interpreted as the overheated labor market cooling down.