US jobless claims fall to five-month low as impact of two storms fades

Applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week to their lowest since May as southeastern states continued to recover from the impact of two severe storms.

  Initial claims decreased by 12,000 to 216,000 in the week ended Oct. 26. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 230,000 applications.

  Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, fell to 1.86 million in the previous week, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.

  Claims data this month have been even more volatile than usual after Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated parts of the South and shut down businesses. In addition, a weeks-long strike at Boeing Co. probably led idled suppliers to furlough workers, further obscuring underlying trends in the labor market.

  The four-week moving average of new applications, a metric that helps smooth out fluctuations, fell to 236,500. 

  Before adjusting for seasonal factors, initial claims declined last week. North Carolina and Florida, states hit hard by storms, saw the largest drops.

  First-time claims have trended higher over the past year, but they are still hovering near the average of the two years preceding the pandemic, when the labor market was strong.

  US-based employers announced almost 55,600 job cuts in October, including 17,000 layoffs planned at Boeing, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. So far in 2024, cuts announced are 3.7% higher than during the same period last year.

  Meantime, hiring plans so far this year, at about 750,300, are the lowest total for the period since 2016, Challenger said in a report.