US Jobless Claims Drop to 189,000, Matching the Lowest Level Since 1969

Initial claims for US unemployment benefits fell 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 189,000 in the week ended October 31, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 196,000, and another survey had 197,000. The prior week was revised to 195,000. The reading matched the 189,000 level touched in mid-July, which was the lowest since 1969, and claims have stayed mostly below 200,000 since mid-September.

Continuing claims, a rough gauge of how hard it is for laid-off workers to find a new job, rose 23,000 to 1.718 million in the week ended October 24, a touch above the 1.710 million estimate and up from 1.695 million. The largest state increases were in Oregon, Illinois and California, and the largest decreases in Texas, New York and Kentucky.

Other layoff data point the same way. Challenger, Gray & Christmas counted 43,994 planned job cuts in October, down 71% from a year earlier and the lowest October since 2023. "Employers are holding on to the workers they have heading into the holidays," said Andy Challenger, adding that companies want flexibility for holiday demand without adding permanent headcount.

The picture is of very low layoffs rather than strong hiring. A Reuters survey expects October payrolls to have grown by just 65,000, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2%. For markets, the combination of few layoffs and slow hiring matters for how the Federal Reserve reads labor-market slack; the payrolls report and the next few weeks of claims will show whether this low level holds.