Washington: The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment claims dropped by 5,000 last week, reaching 227,000 as per the latest data released by the US Labor Department on Thursday. This figure comes in higher than market expectations, which had anticipated a reduction to 222,000 from the previous week's revised total of 232,000.

According to Anadolu Agency, the four-week moving average, which is often seen as a more stable indicator of labor market trends, increased by 7,000 to 219,500 from the prior week's revised figure of 212,500. Meanwhile, the US economy demonstrated robust job growth, adding 130,000 jobs in January, a significant increase from the 48,000 jobs added in the previous month. The unemployment rate also saw a slight improvement, decreasing to 4.3% from December's rate of 4.4%.