First-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits fell to 265,000 for the week ending Jan. 24, the lowest level since April 2000.
The benefit claims reported by the Department of Labor Thursday morning crushed investors’ expectations for roughly 300,000, adjusting for seasonal variation. Instead, the number of workers applying for insurance fell to levels not seen since the height of the dot-com bubble.
There were 308,000 claims the previous week.
The four-week moving average of initial claims feel below 300,000 to 298,500, a decrease of 8,250 from the week before.
Altogether, the total number of laid-off workers receiving benefits for the week of Jan. 10 was 2,961,887, a decrease of 87,774 from the week before. There were 3,565,172 workers getting benefits a year ago.
The jobs outlook improved significantly over the course of 2014, with the economy adding 2.95 million jobs. That total was the most of any year since 1999. The monthly pace of job creation also accelerated during the year to 246,000 jobs on average, well above the 194,000 mark for 2013.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will report on job growth in January on Feb. 6.
Falling layoffs, along with rising advertised job vacancies, bode well for job creation.
The jobless claims data reported Thursday, however, are influenced by seasonal hiring and firing from the holidays, which can be difficult for the Labor Department to adjust for.
Without adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, there were 280,237 initial claims for the week ending Jan. 24. That unadjusted figure was down 102,358 from the week before. The government’s model would predicted a smaller decrease of roughly 50,000.
This story was first published at 8:45 a.m. and has been updated.
