By Kate Davidson and Sarah Portlock
WASHINGTON--The number of Americans filing new claims for
jobless benefits plunged last week to a 15-year low, though the
reading may have been skewed by seasonal volatility.
Initial jobless claims decreased by 43,000 to a seasonally
adjusted 265,000 in the week ended Jan. 24, the Labor Department
said Thursday. That was the lowest level since April 2000.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 300,000
new claims.
The drop could be because of the shortened workweek from the
Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, a Labor Department analyst said.
There was nothing unusual in the state data to suggest that the
numbers were an anomaly, the analyst added.
The weekly claims readings can be noisy from Veterans Day
through Presidents Day, Amherst Pierpont Securities Chief Economist
Stephen Stanley said in a note to clients.
"Swings like this one should always be taken with a sizable
grain of salt," he said. "In about a month's time, the weekly
readings should begin to settle down."
Readings around the holiday period can show a spike in layoffs
as companies hire, then soon dismiss, temporary workers. The claims
data is seasonally adjusted to account for the variations, but the
week-to-week data can still be volatile at other times.
The prior week's figure was revised up to 308,0000 claims from
an initially reported 307,000.
The four-week moving average for initial claims, which evens out
weekly volatility, fell by 8,250 to 298,500. Thursday's report
showed the number of people filing continuing claims for
unemployment benefits decreased by 71,000 to 2.4 million for the
week ended Jan. 17.
Initial jobless claims are still near historic lows and are
consistent with an economy that is adding jobs.
Some economists have been cautioning against extrapolating from
the recent increase in claims, but the rise over the past few weeks
did cause some concern that momentum in the job market had
slowed.
"The drop in the latest week is a relief--even if it was
exaggerated a little by seasonal adjustment problems," Jim
O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said
in a note to clients.
Initial claims slipped below 300,000 last summer and mostly
remained below that level for the rest of 2014. The last time
claims had a similar streak was in 2000. A separate Labor report
showed 2014 was the best year for hiring since 1999
Other signs show the labor market improving. The unemployment
rate fell to 5.6% in December, its lowest level since 2008, and
employers have added more than 200,000 jobs for 11 straight
months.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday acknowledged the labor market's
progress, which the central bank is watching closely as it weighs
when to lift short-term interest rates.
"Labor market conditions have improved further, with strong job
gains and a lower unemployment rate," the Fed said in a statement
after its policy meeting.
Write to Kate Davidson at kate.davidson@wsj.com and Sarah
Portlock at sarah.portlock@wsj.com