Isophoric News · Thursday, October 22, 2026
Weekly jobless claims fall to 194,000, below forecasts
Initial U.S. jobless claims fell by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 194,000 in the week ending Oct. 17, below the 200,000 that economists polled by Bloomberg expected, the Labor Department reported Thursday, according to CNBC and Bloomberg. CNBC said the figure is just above the 189,000 reported for the week of July 18, which it described as the lowest since the late 1960s, and that claims have averaged 212,000 over the past year. Continuing claims rose to a six-week high of 1.73 million in the previous week, Bloomberg reported. CNBC described the labor market as low-hire and low-fire, noting that nonfarm payrolls rose by 29,000 in September and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%.