US jobless claims drop unexpectedly during latest week

The number of Americans filing for unemployment claims slipped again during the latest week.

According to the Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims for the week ending on 23 January dropped by 67,000 from the week before to reach 847,000.

Economists at Barclays Research had penciled-in a smaller dip, from 900,000 to 875,000.

The four-week moving average of claims, which aims to smooth out the volatility in the data from one week to the next, jumped by 16,250 to 868,000.

Secondary unemployment claims meanwhile, which are those that are not being filed for the first time and which reference the week before, also fell.

Over the week ending finishing on 16 January, secondary claims decreased by 203,000 to 4.771m.