U.S. initial jobless claims drop to 365,000 last week
Investing.com
Published Sep 06, 2012 08:33AM ET
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending September 1 fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 365,000, compared to expectations for a decline of 7,000 to 370,000.
The previous week’s figure was revised up to 377,000 from a previously reported 374,000.
Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in 43 of the past 45 weeks.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended August 25 fell to 3.322 million from a revised 3.328 million. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 3.315 million.
The four-week moving average was 371,250, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average of 377,000.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar remained lower against the euro, with EUR/USD adding 0.17% to trade at 1.2623.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures held on to gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to an increase of 0.55% at the open, S&P 500 futures indicated a gain of 0.55%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures signaled a 0.5% advance.
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Written By: Investing.com
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