WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report looming on Friday, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected decline in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 31st.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 189,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 195,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 196,000 from the 194,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected dip, jobless claims matched the multi-decade low of 189,000 set in the week ended July 18th.
'The jobless claims data have been telling the same story of a stable labor market for some time now,' said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. 'Initial claims remain at low levels consistent with few layoffs.'
She added, 'The claims data have been remarkably stable for the past few months, but the headline figures may get noisier starting later this month due to seasonal volatility.'
The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also slipped to 194,750, a decrease of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 197,000.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 23,000 to 1.718 million in the week ended October 24th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also inched up to 1,709,500, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average of 1,708,500.
On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on the employment situation in the month of October.
Economists currently expect employment to increase by 62,000 jobs in October after rising by 29,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.2 percent.
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