US weekly initial jobless claims decline slightly

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The number of American workers filing unemployment claims for the first time decreased to 837,000 last week, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department.

While the market expectation was an increase of 850,000 for the week ending Sept. 26, the previous week's figure was revised up from 870,000 to 873,000.

The states of Arizona, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey saw the highest increase in initial jobless claims from the previous week. Florida, Georgia and Texas posted major declines.

The labor market of the world's largest economy continues to have a sluggish recovery from the coronavirus pandemic since roughly half of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April have been filled.

Personal income in August decreased by $543.5 billion, or 2.7%, from the previous month, marking the largest percentage decline since May, according to the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Analysts expected a decline in August of 2.4% month-over-month, it rose by 0.5% in July.

Personal spending, which is viewed as the main engine of overall economic activity, increased by $141.1 billion, or 1%, according to the Commerce Department.

The market consensus for personal spending was an increase of 0.8%, while it rose 1.5% in the previous month.

"Within services, the leading contributors to the increase were spending for food services and accommodations as well as health care," it said.