WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- The number of first-time unemployment claims dropped by 6,000 last week, government officials said Thursday, extending a labor streak not seen in 40 years.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the United States, totaled 275,000 during the week ending Sept. 5, the Department of Labor said. That's down from 281,000 the week previous.
The drop in jobless claims was more or less consistent with what analysts expected, according to the Wall Street Journal Thursday.
"Claims continue to show no sign of an uptrend, consistent with a still-strong trend in employment growth," Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, said in the Journal report.
The Labor report also noted that the previous week's initial jobless claims were about a thousand fewer than first reported.
Analysts say although jobless claims continue to fluctuate from week to week, they have been in general decline since the financial crisis in 2009. They have held steady under 300,000 for 27 straight weeks now -- a streak last seen in the early 1970s.
Jobless claims under 300,000 generally indicate a healthy job market and a strong hiring atmosphere, the Journal reported.
However, the big picture is still too muddled for many analysts and fiscal leaders.
Although job growth has been steady for five years, experts say long-term unemployment and underemployment is still relatively high.
Employers added 173,000 jobs in the month of August -- which, although still very much a net gain, is the lowest gain since March, labor officials said.
The Federal Reserve will hold a critical meeting next week, where some expect it to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade. The cloudy economic picture, though, could complicate the central bank's outlook.
