US initial jobless claims unexpectedly drop to 43-year low

One of the timeliest measures of the health of the US jobs market surprisingly tanked to a 43-year low last week, according to data published by the Labor Department on Thursday.

US initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell 19,000 from the previous week to 235,000 on 12 November, when economists had been expecting a slight rise to 257,000.

This was the lowest number of Americans filing for new unemployment benefits since 24 November 1973 and marked 89 consecutive weeks of initial claims below
300,000, the longest streak since 1970.

The four-week moving average was down 6,500 to 253,500 on the previous week's average, which was revised up very slightly to 260,000.

Continuing claims in the week to 5 November fell to 1.977m from 2.043m, again short of the consensus forecast, which had pointed to 2.038m.