WASHINGTON: The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting the labor market remains strong even as the economy is slowing.
"Initial claims have been sending a reasonably upbeat message about conditions in the labor market," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York."Today's report likely doesn't contain much information about the period since the recent escalations in trade tensions." INVENTORY ACCUMULATION SLOWING Last week's drop in claims pushed them to the lower end of their 193,000-244,000 range for this year. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, edged up 250 to 212,250 last week.
The economy grew at a 2.1per cent annualized rate in the second quarter, slowing from the first quarter's brisk 3.1per cent pace. Growth is seen below a 2.0per cent rate in the July-September quarter. That suggested the pace of inventory accumulation was much slower than the government had assumed when it compiled its advance GDP report last month. The government is scheduled to publish its second GDP estimate for the April-June period on Aug. 29.
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