U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Since July, Continuing Claims Fall to Pre-Crisis Levels

Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits declined more than estimated last week, while continuing claims fell to pre-crisis levels, indicating last month’s slowdown in job growth could be an anomaly.

Initial jobless claims fell 36,000 to 280,000 in the week-ended September 13, the lowest since July.

The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims fell back below 300,000 to 299,500, down 4,750 from last week`s average.

Continuing claims also fell to 2,429,000, down 63,000 from last week`s revised level and the lowest level for continuing claims since May 19, 2007.

With last week`s report, economists at Barclays noted that while the Labor Department reported no special factors in the report, economists at Bloomberg reported the Labor Department as noting difficulty with estimating jobless claims around the Labor Day holiday .

Last week`s data covered the period during which employers were surveyed for September`s non-farm payrolls. Claims fell 19,000 between the August and September survey periods.

That suggests payrolls growth rebounded from August’s eight-month low, which most economists dismissed as a fluke, noting that payroll gains tend to be smaller in August because of problems adjusting the data for seasonal fluctuations in hiring.