First jobless claims fall to 326K for the first time in four weeks

The number of Americans filing initial unemployment claims fell for the first time in four weeks, as more workers joined the workforce after additional unemployment benefits expired.

First-time jobless claims fell from 38,000 to 326,000 in the week ended Oct. 2, according to the Labor Department. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected a drop to 348,000.

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“After three consecutive weekly increases, new jobless claims have finally gone down,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. “The drop from 38,000 to 326,000 in seasonally adjusted new claims leaves them slightly above the pandemic-era low of a month ago.”

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Continuing claims for the week ended September 25 fell to a pandemic-era low of 2.714 million, down from the upwardly revised 2.811 million the previous week. Analysts had expected a reading of 2.78 million.

The new drop in continuing claims comes less than three weeks after the expiration of the $ 300 per week of additional unemployment benefits.

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About 4.17 million Americans received some form of unemployment assistance, a decrease of more than 854,000 from the previous week. More than 24.6 million Americans filed for benefits in the comparable week in 2020.

The better-than-expected report sets the stage for the September non-farm wage report, which is due for release on Friday. Economists expect the release to show 500,000 Americans found jobs last month as the unemployment rate slipped to 5.1%. This would be an improvement over the 235,000 jobs created in August.