WASHINGTON, Feb 8(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, pointing to underlying labor market strength despite a recent surge in announced layoffs, mostly in the technology industry.
The report from the Labor Department on Thursday also showed unemployment rolls shrinking a bit in late January after swelling to a two-month high earlier.
Labor market resilience is underpinning the economy, and the latest claims readings suggested that the strong economic growth momentum from the fourth quarter continued in early 2024, potentially delaying an anticipated interest rate cut this year.
"The basic message from today's report is not only are there not enough job losses to point to a recession, there are no significant job losses to see at all," said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York.
"The belt-tightening layoffs and cost-cutting talked about in many company earnings reports is not showing up in the weekly unemployment claims statistics."
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 218,000 for the week ended Feb. 3. The decline reversed the bulk of the prior week's increase, which had lifted claims to just over a two-month high.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 220,000 claims for the latest week. Claims are little changed compared to the same period last year. Unadjusted claims dropped 31,192 to 232,727 last week amid sharp declines in filings in California, Ohio, Oregon, New York and Pennsylvania. The decreases in these starts partially unwound surges in the week ending Jan. 27.
Applications in Oregon had soared in the prior week, attributed to layoffs in the construction and healthcare and social assistance industries. The jump in New York was blamed on layoffs in the transportation and warehousing, construction as well as healthcare and social assistance industries.
Original Article from Reuters (click here)
米労働省が8日発表した3日までの1週間の新規失業保険申請件数(季節調整済み)は9000件減の21万8000件と、予想以上に減少した。このところの解雇増にもかかわらず、労働市場の基調的な力強さが改めて示された。
市場では22万件への減少が予想されていた。
FWDBONDS(ニューヨーク)のチーフ・エコノミスト、クリストファー・ルプキー氏は「景気後退(リセッション)が引き起されるほど雇用は減少していないということだけでなく、そもそも大幅な雇用減が全く見られていないことが示された」とし、「多くの企業が決算報告などで人員削減を発表しているが、週間新規失業保険申請件数にまだ反映されていない」と述べた。
調整前の申請件数は3万1192件減の23万2727件。カリフォルニア州、オハイオ州、オレゴン州、ニューヨーク州、 ペンシルベニア州で大きく減少した。
1月27日までの1週間の継続受給件数は2万3000件減の187万1000件だった。
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