Fewer Americans applied forunemployment benefits as the numbers touched the lowest level in two months last week amidongoing labour market tightness, Bloomberg reported.
According to Labor Department data published on Thursday, the initialjobless claims fell by 9,000 to 228,000 in the week ended July 15 — the lowest since mid-May.
Those who have received unemployment benefits for over a week increased to 1.75 million, rising by 33,000 in theweek through July 8. This was the largest increase in over three months.
This shows that thelabour market remains strong asbusinesses hold onto employees, providing hope for the economy to avoidrecession this year.
"The warning clouds of recession have scattered and company layoffs have come back down," said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS in New York, according to Reuters.
"If there is a recession out there, it is one without too many job losses. We don’t know of any such recessions in economic history so there must not be one looming."
The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, fell by 9,250 to 237,500.
However, claims were changed a bit in theweek ended July 15 on anunadjusted basis. The applications rose inCalifornia, Georgia and South Carolina while other states includingincluding Michigan and Kentucky saw a decline.