Weekly US jobless claims fall towards half-century lows
A key indicator of the health of the US jobs market improved more than expected last week as firms continued to tread cautiously when it came to firing staff.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending on 1 September dropped by 10,000 to reach 203,000, according to the Department of Labor.
That was better than the decline to 215,000 which economists at Barclays Research had forecast and the lowest reading since December 1969 - as well as a new cycle low.
The four-week moving average of initial claims meanwhile dropped by 2,750 to 209,500.
Secondary unemployment claims, those which are not filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 25 August, dipped by 3,000 to 1.707m.
Commenting on Thursday's figures, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "We expected a very low reading today, based on a comparison of the path of claims in previous years with the same calendar as this year.
"That analysis points to claims at about 210K over the next couple of weeks but then a decent chance of the first sub-200K number since November 1969. The underlying story here is simply that the combination of strong economic growth and a very tight labor market has raised the bar for layoffs. This situation likely will persist for some time yet."