US initial jobless claims fall by 14,000

ANKARA

The number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims fell 14,000 to 269,000 last week, the US Labor Department said Thursday.

The figure is the fourth consecutive weekly decline below the critical 300,000 level, and "the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000," it said.

Analysts expected the figure to come in at 275,000 for the week ending Oct. 30. The previous week's figure was revised up by 2,000 from 281,000 to 283,000.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.8% in September, down from 5.2% in August, according to the Labor Department.

The US added 194,000 jobs in September, and 7.7 million people are still out of work as of last month in the world's largest economy.

More than 22 million workers in the US lost jobs in March and April of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.