2021.04.2212:37:00UTC+00U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop To 547,000

After reporting a sharp pullback in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday unexpectedly showing a continued decline in initial jobless claims in the week ended April 17.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 547,000, a decrease of 39,000 from the previous week's revised level of 586,000.

The continued drop came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to rebound to 617,000 from the 576,000 originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected decrease, jobless claims slid to their lowest level since hitting 256,000 in the week ended March 14, 2020.