New jobless claims fall, and worker productivity rises
WASHINGTON - Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, close to historical lows in a sign that the job market is healthy. And another key labor indicator released today -- US worker productivity -- showed renewed strength at last.
The Labor Department said applications for jobless aid fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 last week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped to a 44-year low of 232,500. The four-week average was previously that low in April 1973, when the US economy had a smaller population and fewer total workers.
One wrinkle, though, is that Puerto Rico is processing backlogged claims for unemployment benefits after facing disruptions due to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the government said.
Still, the report suggests that employers are holding onto their workers and possibly seeking to add jobs.
Economists forecast that the Labor Department's report for October, to be released Friday, will show a robust gain of 308,000 jobs.
The Labor Department also reported on Thursday that US workers' productivity jumped 3 percent in the third quarter, the strongest gain in three years, while labor costs remained moderate.
The report says the increase in productivity in the July-September quarter was double the 1.5 percent gain in the second quarter. Unit labor costs rose a modest 0.5 percent in the third quarter, up only slightly from a 0.3 percent gain in the second quarter.
Economists don't expect the strong upturn in productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, to last. But they're hopeful that future gains will be stronger than the anemic performance of recent years.
And they say increasing productivity is the biggest challenge currently facing the economy, and without an improvement in this metric, the Trump administration's goal of boosting growth won't be realized.