Weekly US jobless claims drop more quickly than expected

The number of Americans filing for unemployment claims for the first time decreased by a bit more than anticipated last week.

According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, initial jobless claims fell by 16,000 over the week ending on 5 February to reach 223,000.

Economists at Barclays Research had penciled-in a figure of 230,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of initial jobless claims, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the data from one week to the next, declined by 2,000 to 253,250.

The previous week's reading for initial claims was revised up by 1,000 to 239,000.

Secondary unemployment claims, which are those not being filed for the first time, were unchanged during the week ending on 29 January, at 1.621m.