In the week ending March the 24th, US initial jobless claims dropped by 5 000, from an upwardly revised 364 000 to 359 000, while the consensus was looking for an outcome of 350 000. The less volatile four-week moving average extended its downward trend, falling from 368 500 to 365 000. This week’s data included revised seasonal factors for the past 5 years which caused the upward revisions in the previous months’ data. Due to the seasonal adjustment factors, this outcome is the lowest level since April 2008, suggesting that the downward trend in the claims remains intact. Continuing claims, which are reported with an extra week lag, surprised on the downside of expectations. In the week ending the 17th of March, continuing claims dropped by 41 000, from an upwardly revised 3 381 000 to 3 340 000, reaching the lowest level since August 2008. At first sigh, the claims report was somewhat weaker than expected, but when we take the revised seasonal factors into account, the trend in the claims remains encouraging.