Initial claims for unemployment insurance were well below expectations last week, helping to douse caution at the Federal Reserve and elsewhere that the labor market is in danger.
First-time filings for the week ending Sept. 20 totaled a seasonally adjusted 218,000, down 14,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised figure and significantly less than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 235,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Continuing claims, which run a week behind, were little changed, falling 2,000 to 1.926 million.
The release comes just a week after the Federal Reserve voted to lower its benchmark borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 4%-4.25%.
In its post-meeting statement released Sept. 17, the Federal Open Market Committee said that part of the reasoning for the easing, the first in 2026, was that “downside risks to employment have risen.” Indeed, nonfarm payrolls growth has slowed to a crawl and the level of job openings is at a multi-year low.
However, the claims data, despite a bump earlier in the month, has shown that companies are still reluctant to part with workers even if hiring has declined considerably.
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