U.S. initial jobless claims fall to five-week low

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid continued falling last week to a five-week low as job market kept improving as a whole.

In the week ending Aug. 20, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits fell to 261,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the unrevised level of the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The data is better than the market expectation of 265,000, while the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility decreased 1,250 from the previous week's unrevised average to 264,000.

This marks 77 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, a benchmark for real job growth or loss in the economy, the longest streak since 1970, said the Labor Department.

Meanwhile, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 13 decreased 30,000 from the previous week to 2,145,000.

The U.S. nonfarm payroll employment increased by 255,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was maintained at the low level of 4.9 percent, said the Labor Department earlier this month, as it revised up the job gains in May and June, making job gains over the past 3 months to 190,000 per month on average. Endit