-Jerome Powell, Fed Governor
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits declined last week to the lowest level in 15 years, suggesting healthy job creation. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the country, plunged by 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 262,000 in the week ended April 25, according to the Labor Department, marking the lowest level for claims since April 15, 2000. Analysts, however, had expected the gauge to climb to 290,000 in the week. Continuing claims for the week ending April 11 came in at 2.253 million, compared with last week's revised 2.327 million. The unemployment rate in March was 5.5%, down from 6.6% a year earlier and 7.5% in March 2013.
A separate report showed US consumer spending rose in March, with purchases increasing 0.4%, the biggest climb since November. Household spending is expected to revive growth after decline in business investment and exports caused the world's number one economy to considerable slow in the first quarter of 2015. Meanwhile the core PCE Price Index ticked up by 0.1% in March from the previous month, when the gauge booked the 0.1% increase. From a year earlier, the core index rose 1.3%, against economists' expectations for a 1.4% print. The February reading was revised downwards by a notch to 1.3%, meaning that the core inflation rate has remained unchanged for the last four months indicating the largest shortfall to the Fed's 2% objective in about a year.
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