The number of Americans who first applied for unemployment benefits last week fell by 1 thousand, getting to 264 000, said the report of US Department of Labor.
At the same time, analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, expected the index to grow with 8000, up to 273 thousand applications.
The average number of applications over the past four weeks, which is a less volatile measure, dropped last week to its lowest level since April 2000, and amounted 271.75 thousand against 279.5 thousand a week earlier.
The number of people who continue to receive unemployment benefits for the week ended May 2, has not changed and amounted to 2.229 million people.
The experts expected an increase by 4000, with the previously announced level of the previous week - up to 2.232 million.
"In general, the labor market has found a solid ground under their feet" - believes the economist of Jefferies LLC Tom Simons.
Ministry of Labor of the United States today has also published data on producer prices in the past month. In April 2015, producer prices in the US (the index PPI) fell by 0.4% compared to March, when the increase was 0.2%. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, expected price increases of 0.1%. The drop in producer prices compared to April 2014 was 1.3% in the predicted decline of 0.8%.
Producer prices excluding food and energy fell in April by 0.2% compared with the previous month and rose by 0.8% in annual terms. Experts predicted an increase in the first indicator by 0.1%, the second - by 1.1%.