U.S. weekly initial jobless claims fall to five-decade lows, indicate towards healthy labor market conditions

Jobless claims in the U.S. dropped to five-decade lows. In the week ended 6 April, the initial jobless claims dropped 8k to 196k, from 204k a week ago. The data released today continue to indicate towards healthy labor market conditions and extraordinarily low rates of job separation. The four-week moving average in initial claims dropped to 207k, from 214k last week.

The reading of 196k represents a recovery-level low and the lowest reading on initial jobless claims since the late 1960s. Nevertheless, when taken as a share of employment, initial jobless claims have been at all-time lows for many years and reflect unusually low rates of job separations.

Meanwhile, continuing claims dropped 13k in the week ended 30 March, to 1.713 million, and the four-week moving average dropped to 1.735 million from 1.726 million in the prior week. The insured jobless rate remained stable at 1.2 percent, where it has been since last April.

At 13:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bullish at 52.0601 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex