Mubasher: US unemployment claims continued to fall for the fourth consecutive week in the week ended 16 June.

The jobless claims fell 3,000 week-on-week to 218,000 during the last week from the prior week’s revised level, according to data released by the US Labor Department on Thursday.

The four-week moving average for the claims, which is considered a gauge of labour market trends, saw a drop of 4,000 claims to 221,000 for the week ended 16 June, compared to the previous week's revised average of 225,000.

In the same vein, the initial seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 9 June stood at 1.2%, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.

The advance seasonally adjusted figure for the insured jobless individuals in the US increased by 22,000 to 1.72 million during the week ended 9 June, compared to the prior week’s revised figure.

The preliminary unadjusted figure for actual initial claims filed under state programmes totalled 205,583 in the week ended 16 June, falling by 11,706 claims or 5.4% from the claims filed in the preceding week.

By 12:53 pm GMT, the US dollar index fell 0.17% to 94.9620.