Washington, Jan 11, SPA — The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell unexpectedly by 15,000 last week, according to government data released on Thursday.
The figure came after initial jobless claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 322,000 on the week of January 5, 2008, from a slightly revised 337,000 the week before.
Wall Street economists had anticipated a minor increase in new claims to 340,000 from the originally reported 336,000 in the week of December 29, 2007, but did not expect the fall.
The four-week moving average of new claims, which irons out volatility in the week-to-week figures, fell for the second straight week, slipping to 341,000 from 344,000 the prior week.
A U.S. Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors behind the surprise decrease and noted that this time of year can be difficult to account for seasonal adjustments, saying that “this is a real tough time of the year for us.”
Traditionally, there is a good bit of volatility during the period between Thanksgiving and the observance of civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s birthday in mid-January.
The newest figures for unemployment aid came as the U.S. jobless rate rose to 5 percent last month from 4.7 percent in November, the largest monthly rise since October 2001, shortly after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States, a government report showed on Friday
The report increased fears that the U.S. economy might be falling into a recession, if not already in one, and led financial markets to raise bets that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates by a hefty half-percentage point at a meeting on January 29-30, 2008.
These fears and the likely direction of the U.S. interest-rate policy are hoped to be addressed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech planned for 1 p.m. on Thursday.