US unemployment claims unexpectedly fall to five-week low

According to the latest Labour Department release, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits unexpectedly dropped last week to a five week low, pointing to a tightening jobs market. The data for the previous week showed that 267,000 individuals filed new jobless claims. The following data revealed a decline of 1,000 claims from the prior week's level of 268,000. Moreover, the streak of initial jobless claims below 300k resumes a 64 consecutive weeks' period, thus showing the longest since 1973. Moreover, the data was better than the consensus estimate of 270k new claims. Continuing jobless claims, in turn, for the week ended May 21 went up to 2.172 million from 2.160 million in the preceding week. Moreover, the previous week's figure was revised down from 2.163 million. Economists had expected continuing claims to decline further reaching the 2.150 million mark.

Overall, a Labour Department analyst revealed that there were no special factors which have led to the following last week's claims data. However, claims for Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming, Puerto Rico and Hawaii were estimated because of the Memorial Day holiday. Also it could be added, that last week's claims report has no impact on the employment report for May, which is scheduled to be published today.