Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits over the past four weeks than at any time in almost 15 years, signalling underlying strength in the labour market even as hiring cooled last month.
From mid-March through the seven days ended April 4, jobless claims averaged 282,250 a week, the lowest since June 2000, a Labor Department report showed yesterday in Washington.
Applications over the latest week climbed by 14,000 to 281,000.
The median forecast of 45 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 283,000.
The level of dismissals is consistent with an improving labour market and indicates companies are optimistic demand will strengthen after a weaker first quarter. Figures earlier this week showing job openings at a 14-year high point to a pickup in the pace of hiring after a March slowdown.
Applications stabilising at this level are “evidence of a healthy labour market”, said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial in Detroit, whose projection for 280,000 claims for the latest week was among the closest in the Bloomberg survey. “I don’t really see us going much lower than where we are now.”
Stock-index futures were little changed as Alcoa unofficially kicked off the earnings season with quarterly sales that missed projections.
The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index maturing in June fell 0.1pc to 2,072.9 at 8:44am in New York. Estimates in the Bloomberg survey for jobless claims over the past week ranged from 275,000 to 325,000. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s reading to 267,000, matching the lowest since April 2000, from an initial 268,000.
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