Unemployment benefits applications in the USA were below expectations

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 1000 to 197 thousand in the week ending September 19 compared to the previous week.

Market expectation was that the number of unemployment benefit applications would be 201 thousand in this period. The previous week's data on the number of unemployment benefit applications was revised from 196 thousand to 198 thousand.

As of last week, the 4-week average number of unemployment benefit applications decreased by 1750 people to 202 thousand 250. The number of ongoing unemployment benefit applications increased by 2 thousand to 1 million 719 thousand in the week ending September 12.