Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell unexpectedly last week, remaining close to a five-year low, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending March 10 fell by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 332,000, compared to expectations for an increase of 8,000 to 350,000.
Jobless claims for the preceding week were revised up to 342,000 from a previously reported gain of 340,000.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended March 3 fell to 3.024 million. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 3.100 million from last week's revised figure of 3.113 million.
The four-week moving average was 346,750, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 349,500.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar added to gains against the euro, with EUR/USD shedding 0.37% to trade at 1.2913.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures held on to modest gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to an increase of 0.2% at the open, S&P 500 futures indicated a gain of 0.3%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures signaled a 0.4% advance.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
