US continuing jobless claims are 1,718K for week ending October 31
Initial claims for the same week were 189K, which keeps layoffs rare and leaves any near-term case for Federal Reserve easing resting on inflation.
Chart: US continuing jobless claims
The number of Americans still drawing unemployment benefits was 1,718K in the week ending October 31. Investing.com's preview of the release had a consensus of 1,710K and a previous reading of 1,701K.
That leaves the series inside the range it has held for the past month. It is below the 1,728K spike reported on October 22 and above 1,701K. It neither confirms the brief softening flagged three weeks ago nor the reversal that followed.
Layoffs remain rare, and the week-to-week noise in continuing claims points only to some variation in how fast people find new work.
The labor data therefore leaves the Federal Reserve's reasoning where it was. Any near-term case for easing rests on inflation, not on a weakening job market.
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