Weekly jobless claims in the US undershoot forecasts again

Jobless claims in the US receded by more than expected once more last week.

According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of initial unemployment claims dipped by 2,000 over the week ending on 13 August to reach 245,000.

Economists had penciled in a print of 255,000.

Explaining the shortfall in claims versus economists' forecasts, initial claims data for the previous week were revised lower by 5,000 to 245,000.

Secondary claims, which are those not being filed for the first and which reference the week until6 August, were little changed, decreasing by 19,000 to 1.415m.