US weekly jobless claims print below forecasts, trend shifts lower

US jobless claims surprised to the downside, falling by 6,000 during the week ending on 4 August to reach 213,000, according to the Department of Labour.

That compared favourably to a forecast from economists at Barclays for a reading of 220,000.

The prior week's estimate for initial unemployment claims meanwhile was raised by 1,000 o 219,000.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smoothe out the fluctuations in the data from one week to the next, dipped by 500 to 214,250.

Secondary unemployment claims, those which are not filed for the first time and referencing the previous week, increased by 29,000 to 1.755m.

"It's still too early to be sure, but increasingly it appears that the trend in jobless has moved down to a new cycle low on the back of the second quarter's very strong GDP growth," said Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"[...] In short, even as firms appear to be pulling back a bit on the pace of new hiring, the pace of gross firings continues to decline. Firms don't want to let people go, because replacing them is extremely difficult."