Shortest dole queue for seven years boosts US recovery hopes
THE AVERAGE number of newly unemployed US workers claiming benefits dropped to its lowest level since 2007 in May, according to figures released yesterday.
In the last week of May, there were 312,000 fresh claimants. This brought the moving average for the month to 310,250, the lowest level since the summer of 2007, before the full impact of the financial crisis.
The number of continuing claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 2.603m, bringing the month’s average to 2.635m. Similarly, this figure is the lowest seen for a single month since the end of 2007, showing the extent to which the world’s largest economy’s job market has recovered.
Data for the number of US non-farm payrolls will be released today, providing one of the last major indicators of the strength of the US economy before the next Federal Reserve meeting.
“Market participants should be prepared for what might very well be the strongest overall canvass thus far in 2014,” said Brian Jones, of Societe Generale, ahead of the figures.