Mubasher: The number of unemployed individuals applying for benefits declined last week, official weekly report showed on Thursday.

US unemployment claims, which trace layoffs, edged down by 8,000 week-on-week to 211,000 claims in the week ended 2 November, compared with the upwardly revised total of 219,000 the week before, the US Department of Labor said.

The more stable 4-week average of claims, which usually gives a more accurate picture of the labour market conditions than the volatile weekly figure, was 215,250, rising by 250 from the upwardly revised average of 215,000, from the previous week.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 26 October came in at 1.2%, stabilising from the prior week’s unrevised rate.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the jobless individuals already collecting benefits in the US declined by 3,000 to 1.689 million during the seven days to 26 October, compared to the preceding week’s upwardly revised 1.692 million.

The preliminary unadjusted number of actual first-time claims filed under state programmes totalled 205,459 in the week to 2 November, rising by 6,740 claims or 3.4% from the claims submitted last week.

This came a little lower than 214,814 initial claims registered the same week last year.

It is worth noting that jobless claims usually start to surge before an incoming recession, and drop to low levels during times of economic growth.

By 1:34 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, ticked up by 0.01% to 97.9610.