US jobless claims unchanged over latest week

Companies in the U.S. continued to hold onto staff during the preceding week.

According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted term the number of initial unemployment claims was unchanged during the week ending on 7 October at 209,000.

Economists had penciled in a reading of 214,000.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the figures from one week to the next, slipped by 3,000 to reach 206,250.

Secondary unemployment claims meanwhile, which are those not being filed for the first time and referencing the week that ended on 30 September, rose by 30,000 to 1.702m.

"Elsewhere today, the unchanged jobless claims print keeps the numbers some 25K below the trend before September’s drop, but the rebound in WARN notices points to significantly higher numbers later in the fall," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

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