Jobless Claims Slip Lower, Below 200,000 For Fifth Straight Week

The number of people applying for jobless benefits in the U.S. slipped downward last week, the fifth consecutive week in which new claims have come in below 200,000.

The Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dipped by 1,000 to 194,000 in the week ended February 4th. Economists had expected claims would rise to 200,000.

The prior week’s estimate was revised down by 1,000 to 195,000.

Claims, which are a proxy for layoffs, can be volatile so economists often look at the four-week average to determine the underlying trend. This moved up to 189,500, a low figure. The prior moving average was revised down by 25,000 to 189,000.

Continuing claims get reported with a one-week delay. This rose by 16,000 to 1,696,000. The previous week’s continuing claims figure was revised down by 8,000. The four-week moving average of continuing claims was 1,673,000, an increase of 10,250 from the previous week.

The labor market continues to signal that employers have a voracious appetite for workers despite a slowdown in the housing and manufacturing sectors. Last week, the Labor Department said there were 11 million job vacancies at the end of December, an unexpected increase in openings. Employers added 517,000 workers to payrolls in January and unemployment fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest since 1969. This brought the ratio of vacancies to unemployed people to 1.9 to one, near the record high hit last year.

The strength of the labor market is frustrating efforts by the Federal Reserve to tame inflation. Chairman Jerome Powell has made it clear that he believes a softer labor market, with a better balance between the demand and supply of labor, is necessary to bring inflation down to the Fed’s target of two percent.

In a separate report on Thursday, the Labor Department said its producer price index rose 0.7 percent in January, an unexpectedly strong acceleration in inflation after a slight decline in December. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department said retails sails surged higher in January, suggesting an increase in demand from consumers.