Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell back towards their lowest levels in 48 years.
The data added to recent indications the U.S. economy is strong enough to warrant multiple interest rate hikes this year.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending March 24 decreased by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 215,000 from the previous week’s total of 227,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 230,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 224,500, down 500 from the previous week. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended March 17 rose to 1.871 million from 1.836 million in the preceding week, compared to expectations for an increase to 1.875 million.