Weekly US jobless claims slip lower by surprise

The U.S. jobs market tightened slightly during the previous week, contrary to expectations.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims slipped by 7,000 over the week ending on 22 July to reach 221,000.

Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a reading of 235,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the data from one week to the next dropped by 3,750 to 233,750.

Continuing claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and which reference the week finishing on 15 July, dropped by 59,000 to 1.69m.

"T dip in jobless claims is a surprise; the unadjusted numbers saw no auto shutdown effect this year but are seeing the usual post-shutdown decline, so the adjusted numbers are falling," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"his suggests that the underlying picture is improving but we are reserving judgement here because a reversal over the next couple weeks is entirely possible."

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