Jobless claims fall to lowest level since May

By Greg Robb

Claims fall 12,000 to 219,000 vs. forecast of 229,000

The numbers: The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits last week fell to the lowest level since mid-May.

New claims decreased by 12,000 in the seven days that ended Sept. 14 - to 219,000, the government said Thursday.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast new claims to total 229,000, based on seasonally adjusted figures.

Claims in the prior week were revised up by 1,000 to 231,000.

Key details: The number of new claims based on actual filings - that is, before seasonal adjustments - stayed under 200,000 for the sixth week in a row. It's quite uncommon for actual claims to be that low

The number of people already collecting unemployment benefits in the week of Sept. 7 fell 14,000 to 1.83 million, the government said.

These so-called continuing claims have increased gradually in the past year because it's taking longer for people who lose a job to find another one.

Big picture: The labor market has taken a turn for the worse since the summer. Job openings have tumbled, hiring has slowed and the unemployment rate has risen to a more than three-year high of 4.2%.

At the same time, jobless claims, a measure of layoffs, have remained low.

The Federal Reserve made a sizable half-percentage-point cut in its policy interest rate on Wednesday, in part to keep the labor market from deteriorating much further. The Fed predicts the jobless rate will peak at 4.4%.

Looking ahead: "Businesses have been extremely reticent to let go of workers that they struggled to find over the last 3 years. We doubt that they will be able to hold on to everyone indefinitely, but they're going to try," said Thomas Simons, economist at Jefferies.

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA was up 1.2% an hour into trading and the S&P 500 SPX was up about 1.8% in Thursday trading. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y rose to 3.713%.

-Greg Robb

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09-19-24 1041ET

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