U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Dip To 202,000

(RTTNews) - First time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged lower in the week ended March 28th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 202,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level of 211,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 212,000 from the 210,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 201,000 in the week ended January 10th.

"The US/Israel war with Iran is making the labor market more vulnerable, but any impact will take some time to materialize," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. "That's confirmed by the latest job claims figures, which are consistent with stable labor market conditions."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 207,750, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 210,750.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 25,000 to 1.841 million in the week ended March 21st.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still fell by 7,500 to 1,838,750, hitting the lowest level since the week ended September 28, 2024.

"Continued claims rose in the week ended March 21, but that reflects the typical weekly noise in continued claims, and not a change in labor market conditions," said Vanden Houten.

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on employment in the month of March.

Economists currently expect employment to increase by 51,000 jobs in March after slumping by 92,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.4 percent.