After reporting a modest drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in over eight years in the week ended July 19th.
The report said initial jobless claims slid to 284,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's revised level of 303,000. The drop surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to climb to 308,000 from the 302,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 283,000 in the week ended February 18, 2006.
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