Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 to 206,000 in the week ending February 14, the Labor Department reported Thursday, highlighting a rarely achieved level of job security.
The reading puts claims in the bottom eight percent of all weekly reports over the past decade, underscoring the strength of the labor market. Only 40 weeks out of 522 since early 2016 have recorded claims at or below this level.
The decline was the largest weekly drop since November and came in below all but one economist estimate in a Bloomberg survey.
New applications have fallen below the 210,000 mark only a handful of times in the past year, indicating layoffs remain low. Claims have been higher 92 percent of the time since early 2016. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly volatility, declined slightly to 219,000.
However, continuing claims—a proxy for the number of people receiving unemployment benefits—rose to 1.87 million in the week ending February 7, the highest level since early January.
Before seasonal adjustment, initial claims showed large declines in New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Texas reported the decline came after the previous week saw layoffs in manufacturing, construction, accommodation and food services, and transportation industries.
The insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.2 percent.
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