No states estimated jobless data and there was nothing unusual in the report, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released.
Monthly Average
The four-week average of claims declined to 279,000, the lowest since April 2000, from 281,250 in the prior period.
The number of people continuing to receive benefits fell by 39,000 to 2.35 million in the week ended Oct. 25, the fewest since December 2000. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits held at 1.8 percent.
Employers have added an average of more than 227,000 jobs a month so far this year, according to Labor Department data. Tomorrow’s monthly payrolls report may show a gain of 235,000 in October, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 5.9 percent, the lowest since July 2008.
Private payrolls climbed 230,000 in October, the most since June, after a revised 225,000 gain a month earlier, according to a report yesterday from Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Research Institute. Employment at service producers rose by 181,000 last month, the group said.
Services Expansion
A measure of services employment from the Institute for Supply Management also rose for a sixth month to reach the highest level in more than nine years.
FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. are boosting staffing as they prepare for the holiday-shopping season. Atlanta-based UPS is adding as many as 95,000 temporary workers, 10,000 more than last year, in anticipation that it will deliver 11 percent more packages, even as U.S. export markets cool, according to Chief Executive Officer David Abney.
“Overall, the global economic outlook has been mixed,” Abney said on an Oct. 24 earnings call.