<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. labor market showed surprising resilience last week as first-time jobless claims fell more than expected<\/strong>, while a stronger-than-initially-reported economic expansion in the second quarter added to signs of underlying growth momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the week ending September 20, initial unemployment claims dropped to 218,000<\/strong>, down by 14,000 from the prior week. Economists had expected claims to rise to around 233,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, continuing claims<\/strong> \u2014 which track the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits after the first week \u2014 edged slightly lower by 2,000 to 1.926 million. While this suggests some improvement, analysts caution it still reflects persistent challenges for workers facing long-term unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. economy expanded at a 3.8% annualized rate<\/strong> in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Commerce Department\u2019s final estimate. This was an upgrade from the prior 3.3% estimate and well above the initial 3.0% reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stronger print was largely driven by a robust upward revision in consumer spending<\/strong>, underscoring the strength of household demand despite sticky inflation and rising borrowing costs. The result marks a stark turnaround from the 0.5% contraction in Q1 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These figures arrive as the Federal Reserve weighs further rate cuts<\/strong> after trimming borrowing costs by 25 basis points last week. While policymakers acknowledged risks from both weakening labor conditions<\/strong> and stubborn inflation<\/strong>, Thursday\u2019s data complicates the picture by highlighting economic resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fed\u2019s dot plot projections<\/strong> signaled a majority of members see another half-point of cuts across the October and December meetings. However, seven of the 19 forecasts implied fewer reductions, while one official \u2014 suspected to be newly-appointed Governor Stephen Miran<\/strong> \u2014 projected a much steeper decline to a range of 2.75%\u20133%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee<\/strong> on Wednesday reiterated caution, stressing he was not inclined toward aggressive easing given inflation risks. By contrast, Miran<\/strong> has argued that rates are too restrictive and could threaten the labor market if not lowered more decisively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. labor market showed surprising resilience last week as first-time jobless claims fell more than expected, while a stronger-than-initially-reported economic expansion in the second quarter added to signs of underlying growth momentum. Jobless Claims Beat Expectations For the week ending September 20, initial unemployment claims dropped to 218,000, down by 14,000 from the prior …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":33560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4707,6827,49,37,36],"tags":[9494,7070,7822],"class_list":["post-119240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-breaking-news","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-forex-markets","category-market-updates","tag-department-of-labour","tag-jobless-claims","tag-labour-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119240"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121413,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119240\/revisions\/121413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jobless Claims Beat Expectations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
GDP Growth Revised Upward<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Fed Policy Outlook in the Spotlight<\/h4>\n\n\n\n