Bloomberg (07/11) -- Fewer Americans filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating firings haven’t picked up following the partial government shutdown.
Jobless claims decreased by 9,000 to 336,000 in the week ended Nov. 2 from 345,000 the prior period, the Labor Department reported today in Washington. The median forecast of 53 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a decrease to 335,000. No states estimated their data last week, and there was nothing unusual in the figures, the Labor Department said.
Companies may be feeling more confident as vehicle sales and housing maintain gains and manufacturing shows signs of accelerating. Fewer dismissals set the groundwork for a pickup in hiring, which is needed to revive the consumer spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy.
“It reinforces the idea of steady, if moderate, employment growth,” Ryan Wang, an economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York, said before the report, crediting both the uptick in the housing market and improved demand from Europe for giving companies the wherewithal to hire. “It’s helped the economy overall.”
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure, fell to 348,250 last week from 357,500 the prior week.
Economists’ estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 323,000 to 350,000. The prior week’s claims were revised from an initially reported 340,000.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 4,000 to 2.87 million in the week ended Oct. 26.