Unemployment in U.S. falls to five-year low

Despite the rise in the number of initial jobless claims in the US last week, the rate of unemployment has held close to its lowest level since 2007.

According to, Reuters, claims rose by 13,000 last week. The four week moving average for new claims, a better tool for market trends, shows that in spite of this, labor market trends fell to their lowest since November of 2007. The four week average of 330,500 claims was about 5% lower it was in July.

Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. assured the labor market is improving and that “[i]t’s more important to put the emphasis on the trend in claims, which remains favorable,” Bloomberg reports. The number of firings is also decreasing, paving the way to higher salaries and employment rates.

The numbers for August suggest an almost 40,000 increase in new jobs from July. USA Today writes that while about 162,000 jobs were created last month, the drop in applications for unemployment benefits in August suggests employers added more than 200,000 new jobs.

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