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Weekly US jobless claims fall; the number of unemployment is decreasing

Online Niel November 15, 2024

Lucia Mutikani
| Reuters

The number of Americans filing new jobless claims fell last week, suggesting the labor market continued to run and that the sharp slowdown in job growth in October was an aberration.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits fell by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 for the week ended Nov. 9, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated 223,000 claims for the past week.

Claims rose in early October amid disruptions from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as a strike by workers at Boeing BN plants, but layoffs remained historically low, supporting the economy.

“While many employment indicators point to a significant softening of labor market conditions this year, this change has not yet been carried over into the unemployment insurance data,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP.

While it may take some time for areas devastated by Helene to recover, economists are optimistic that job growth will pick up again in November and with the Boeing strike ending, allowing the planemaker to cancel furloughs it had implemented to save cash. Nonfarm payrolls rose by just 12,000 jobs in October, the least in four years.

Easing labor market conditions will encourage the Federal Reserve to cut a third interest rate next month, even as progress in lowering inflation has stalled. The US central bank last week cut its benchmark overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 4.50%-4.75%.

The Fed kicked off its policy easing cycle with an unusually large half-percentage-point rate cut in September, the first reduction in borrowing costs since 2020. It raised rates by 525 basis points in 2022 and 2023 to calm inflation.

The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for employment, fell by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.873 million in the week ended Nov. 2, the claims report showed. The drop in so-called continuing claims likely reflected the end of Boeing-related furloughs and declining disruption from hurricanes.

Report by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama