Weekly US jobless claims hit half-century low

A key gauge of labour market slack in the US plumbed its lowest level in over half a century during the preceding week.

According to the US Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, initial unemployment claims dropped by 28,000 over the week ending on 19 March to hit 182,000.

Economists at Barclays Research had forecast 215,000.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth out the variations in the figures from one week to the next, fell by an also sharp 11,500 to 211,750.

So too, secondary jobless claims, which are those not being filed for the first time and that reference the week ending on 12 March, slid by 67,000 to 1.35m.