Weekly US jobless claims continue to retreat

The number of Americans filing for unemployment claims continued to fall back last week.

According to the Department of Labor, initial jobless claims fell by 355,000 during the week ending on 6 June to reach a pace of 1.542m (consensus: 1.45m).

The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the volatility in the data from one week to the next, meanwhile retreated by 286,250 to 2.002m.

Secondary unemployment claims, those which are not being filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 30 May, dropped by 339,000 to reach 20.929m.

Initial claims for the week that ended on 30 May were revised higher by 20,000 to 1.877m.