Initial jobless claims unexpectedly decline to 216,000

Investing.com -- The number of Americans filing for new unemployment insurance unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a lingering tightness in the U.S. labor market that may impact the Federal Reserve's upcoming monetary policy decisions.

Initial jobless claims, widely seen as a proxy for lay-offs, decreased to 216,000 in the week ended on September 2, down from a marginally upwardly revised reading of 229,000 in the prior week. Economists had projected that the figure would climb to 234,000. The four-week moving average, which aims to account for volatility in the weekly data, also inched lower to 229,250.

Meanwhile, the amount of people receiving benefits after a first week of aid dipped by 40,000 to 1.679 million, Labor Department data showed. So-called continuing claims remain relatively low on a historical basis, suggesting that many workers are going through short periods of unemployment.

"The labor market continues to hold up," said Kathy Jones, Chief Fixed Income Strategist at Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.