The numbers: Initial jobless benefit claims fell by 7,000 to 221,000 in the week ended July 22, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is the lowest level of claims since February.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had estimated new claims would rise 7,000 to 235,000. This is the third weekly drop in a row. Last week claims fell 9,000 to 228,000.
Key details: The number of people already collecting jobless benefits fell by 59,000 to 1.69 million. That’s the lowest level since late January.
On an unadjusted basis, claims fell by 44,487 to 213,677. That’s the lowest level since late May.
Big picture: The labor market has been very resilient. As a result, the Federal Reserve staff is no longer forecasting a recession.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the labor market is “very tight.” He said that reducing inflation will require some softening of labor market conditions.
What are they saying? “The unadjusted numbers saw no auto shutdown effect this year, but are seeing the usual post-shutdown decline, so the adjusted numbers are falling. This suggests that the underlying picture is improving but we are reserving judgement here because a reversal over the next couple weeks is entirely possible,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Market reaction: Stocks
DJIA,
SPX,
were set to open higher on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
rose to 3.88%.
This post was originally published on Market Watch
