US jobless claims fell 26,000 to 239,000 for the week ending June 24, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts had expected the high application numbers to remain above 260,000, where they had been for the past three weeks.
“We do not have a specific explanation for this sudden drop, after three straight weeks in a tight range of 262,000 to 265,000, but individual week observations should always be viewed with skepticism, especially when they move against the established trend in claims and other data,” analysts at Contingent Macro Research said in a note to clients Thursday.
The four-week average, which is less volatile than the weekly average, increased by 1,500 to 257,500.
Aid applications are considered representative of the number of layoffs in a given week.
Jobless claims in the last three weeks have approached 300,000 after mostly being in the high 100,000 to low 200,000 range since the fall of 2021. Still, that increase probably won’t be enough for unemployment officials. the Fed, who have previously said that the unemployment rate needs to rise above 4% in order to reduce inflation.
Also on Thursday, the government said the US economy grew at an annual rate of 2% from January to March, much more than the previous estimate of 1.3%. That, combined with the still-strong job market, likely means Fed officials will go ahead with another rate hike before the end of the year as their battle against inflation continues.
