U.S. initial jobless claims stay at 40-year low

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid stayed at a 40-year low level last week, as the job market kept stable.

In the week ending Oct. 8, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits was 246,000, unchanged from the revised level of the previous week that was revised down by 3,000 from 249,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

The data is better than the market expectation of 254,000, and the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility decreased 3,500 from the previous week's revised average to 249,250. Both data fell to their lowest level since November 1973.

This marks 84 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 Oct. 1 decreased 16,000 from the previous week to 2,046,000.

The U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 156,000 and the unemployment rate was 5 percent in September, making job gains 192,000 per month in average over the past three months, said the Labor Department last week.

The U.S. Federal Reserve was closer to moving up interest rate, if economic developments unfounded about as the Committee expected, said minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting released on Wednesday. Endi