In an upbeat sign for the job market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits tumbled to their lowest level in over forty years in the week ended July 18th.
The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 255,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 281,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 279,000.
With the much bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 233,000 in November of 1973.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average showed a more modest decrease, edging down by 4,000 to 278,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 282,500.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also dipped by 9,000 to 2.207 million in the week ended July 11th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims fell to 2,253,750, a decrease of 10,500 from the previous week's revised average of 2,264,250.
Earlier this month, the Labor Department released a separate report showing that non-farm payroll employment increased by 223,000 jobs in June, modestly below the addition of 230,000 jobs anticipated by economists.
The report also showed downward revisions to the pace of job growth in April and May, with the job gains in the two months combined coming in 60,000 lower than previously reported.
Nonetheless, the unemployment rate still fell to 5.3 percent in June from 5.5 percent in May. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to dip to 5.4 percent.
The bigger than expected decrease pulled the unemployment rate down to its lowest level since hitting 5.0 percent in April of 2008.
The drop in the unemployment rate was primarily due to a steep drop in the size of the labor force, however, with the civilian labor force tumbling by 432,000 people.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Forex News
April 24, 2026 15:15 ET Economics news flow was relatively light this week even as the conflict in the Middle East continued, raising concerns for policymakers. In the U.S., spending data, initial jobless claims and pending home sales were the highlights. Business confidence in the biggest euro area economy was in focus in Europe. Inflation data from Japan gained attention in Asia.