US initial jobless claims decline; hiring activity likely to rebound in coming weeks

Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims in the US for the week ending June 4 dropped 4,000 to 264,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised claims of 268,000, according to the US Department of Labor. The median consensus projection was 270,000. The four-week moving average was registered at 269,500, a decline of 7,500. The previous week’s average was upwardly revised by 250 to 277,000.

According to the Labor Department, this week’s initial claims were not impacted by any special factors. The Labor Department stated that this was the 66th consecutive week where initial jobless claims were lower than 300,000.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for the week ending 28 May dropped by 77,000 to 2.095 million from the previous week’s unrevised level of 2.172 million. This brought the insured jobless rate down to 1.5 percent. The four-week moving average dropped 17,500 to 2.145 million from the previous week’s unrevised average of 2.163 million. According to the state-level claims data, Kentucky and California mainly drove the decline in seasonally adjusted continuing claims.

Overall, the labor market separations do not indicate any signs of deterioration. The JOLTS data and the net change in nonfarm employment showed that hiring has decelerated in recent months. However, companies do not seem to be shedding labor. In the coming weeks, hiring activity is likely to resume. This will lead an overall recovery in the net employment growth, said Barclays in a research report.