Unemployment Benefit Applications Decreased in the USA

The US Department of Labor announced weekly data on unemployment benefits applications. Accordingly, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits for the first time in the country decreased by 6 thousand people in the week ending August 15 compared to the previous week, falling to 206 thousand. Market expectation was that the number of unemployment benefit applications would be 210 thousand in this period. The previous week's data on the number of unemployment benefit applications was revised from 209 thousand to 212 thousand. As of last week, the 4-week average number of unemployment benefit applications increased by 4 thousand 250 and reached 204 thousand. The number of ongoing unemployment benefit applications increased by 18 thousand in the week ending August 8 compared to the previous week, reaching 1 million 799 thousand.