Weekly US jobless claims continue to undershoot forecasts, economists upbeat

A key leading indicator of joblessness in the US continued to point to better-than-expected conditions.

According to the US Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims for the week ending on 18 January rose by 6,000 to 211,000 (consensus: 215,000).

The four-week moving average on the other hand, which smoothes out the volatility in the data from one week to the next, fell by 3,250 to 213.250.

Secondary unemployment claims, those that are not filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 11 January, fell by another 37,000 to 1.731m.

The initial jobless claims print for the week ending on 11 January was revised up by 1,000 to 205,000.

Commenting on the latest US jobless claims numbers, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "We expected a bigger rebound after last week’s exceptionally low reading, so today’s report adds more weight to our view that the underlying trend in claims is not rising; it might, perhaps, be falling again.

"All the slowdown in payroll growth from the 2018 peak has been due to slower gross hiring, not rising layoffs. Note too that continuing claims fell sharply again [...]."