The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped for the sixth consecutive week, hitting the lowest level since mid-April, according to the Associated Press.
Jobless claims for the week ending July 19 were down 4,000 to 217,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s fewer than the 227,000 new applications analysts had expected.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, fell by 5,000 to 224,500.
The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week of July 12 remained stable, increasing by just 4,000 to 1.96 million.
