US initial jobless claims slip lower, secondary claims down again

US jobless claims continued to slip lower during the latest week especially those not being filed for the first time, in a potentially positive signal for the next monthly non-farm payrolls report.

According to the Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims for the week ending on 19 June decreased by 7,000 to 411,000.

Economists had forecast a larger drop to 380,000.

Nevertheless, secondary unemployment claims, which correlate more closely with hiring, as opposed to firings, fell by 144,000 to 3.39m.

The four-week moving average for initial claims, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the data from one week to the next, increased by 1,500 to 397,750.