Jobless Claims Still Low

By Stevie Duffin Updated on 9/25/2013

 

Americans have been filing less jobless claims recently.  Last week the number of claims remained flat compared to the prior week.  This is actually the lowest unemployment number since year 2008 and as the market for jobs continues to improve.

The seasonally adjusted number of initial jobless claims for the week ending February 18 was 351K according to the Labor Department which is unchanged from the previous week.

Analysts actually expected the number to be 355K for the new jobless claims last week with a range of estimates between 330K and 363K. It is the belief of most economists that if initial claims are lower than 400K, that means that economy and the job market are actually becoming stronger. There are also other government plans that may help the economy such as the Obama Harp 2 Program which will be rolled out in March 2012. Jobless claims have been lower than this magic threshold for most of the past four months.

The four-week moving average, a normally more stable indicator than weekly jobless claims number, actually decreased by 7K claims to 359K which again was a move in the right direction.