US Unemployment Claims Drop Increase Optimism on NFP

October 2, 2014 Share Print 0

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, a sign the labor market may be tightening.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 287,000 in the week ended Sept. 27, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 297,000 last week.

Claims have fallen steadily since the nation emerged from the 2007-09 recession and are currently lower than they were before the country’s economic crisis began.

The trend suggest “labor market slack is on the decline,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, an strategist at TD Securities.

Thursday’s data has no bearing on Friday’s government report on monthly employment during September because the hiring survey was conducted earlier in the month. Economists expect companies stepped up the pace of hiring last month, adding 215,000 workers to payrolls.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.