Jobless Claims Stay Depressed As Hiring Is On A Roll

Another labor market indicator is out, and the data is consistent with the recent deduction that the labor market is alive and kicking. This could be a good omen for president-elect Donald Trump, as he is set to take the reins of the world's largest economy.

Jobless Claims

A Labor Department report released a short while ago showed that the number of people filing for first time unemployment benefits, also called jobless claims, fell 11,000 to 254,000 in the week ended November 5 from an unrevised reading of 265,000 in the previous week.

Economists had expected a reading of 263,000 for the week.

The Labor Department clarified that there were no special factors impacting the data for the recently reported week. This marked 88 consecutive weeks claims were below 300,000 — the longest streak since 1970, the DoL release said.

However, the four-week average, which smooths volatility, rose 1,750 to 259,750 from the previous week's revised level of 258,000. The four-week average for the previous was upwardly revised by 250.

Continuing Claims

Continuing claims, which are reported with a week's lag, rose to 2.041 million in the week ended October 29 from 2.023 in the week ended October 22.

The October NFP report released earlier this month also pointed toward strong hiring trends. A robust labor market boosts the chance of a Fed rate hike, although the change of guard in the political arena may ensure a continued accommodative monetary policy environment.

In pre-market trading, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was currently up 0.53 percent at 217.58.