12:06 PM EDT, 04/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Weekly applications for unemployment insurance in the US unexpectedly declined, with the four-week moving average also falling, according to government data released Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted number of initial claims fell by 5,000 to 207,000 in the week ended April 20, the US Department of Labor said. The consensus was for a 215,000 level in a survey of analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The previous week's reading was unrevised at 212,000.

The four-week moving average came in at 213,250, down by 1,250 from the prior week's unrevised average. Unadjusted claims fell by 7,363 on a weekly basis to 201,619.

Claims "remain well below levels that would signal a major slowdown in net job growth," Oxford Economics Lead US Economist Nancy Vanden Houten said in a note. "Continued claims declined for a second week and may be starting to trend lower, reflecting a persistently low level of initial claims."

For the week ended April 13, seasonally adjusted continuing claims totaled 1.78 million, below the Bloomberg consensus for 1.81 million. Continuing claims dropped by 15,000 from the previous week's level that was revised down by 16,000. The four-week moving average was about 1.79 million, decreasing by 7,250 from the previous week's downwardly revised average, according to the DOL.

California saw the highest gain in initial claims for the week ended April 13 at 2,405, followed by Connecticut with 1,613 and Georgia with 1,419. The largest decrease was in New Jersey, where claims slipped by 4,370, followed by Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

"A strong labor market gives the Federal Reserve the room to put off rate cuts until inflation gets back on a sustainable path to 2%," according to Vanden Houten. "We have pushed the first rate cut to September from June in our updated baseline and have reduced from three to two the number of rate cuts in our forecast for 2024."