US weekly jobless claims fall 12,000, pointing to resilient labor market

The US Department of Labor said Thursday that initial jobless claims for the week of June 14–20 totaled 215,000.

That was a decrease of 12,000 from the prior week and came in below analyst expectations. The Dow Jones consensus forecast had been 223,000.

However, continuing claims — covering those who have filed for unemployment benefits for two or more consecutive weeks — rose to 1.821 million for the week of June 7–13, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week.

Experts broadly agree that the labor market remains resilient. Analysts are closely watching the June employment report, due July 2. With inflation pressures running high — May's personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, which tracks the prices of goods and services purchased by households, rose 4.1 percent year-on-year — a string of stable labor market readings is raising the likelihood of further interest rate increases.