In the US, for the week ending May 23, 2.123 million people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time, 323,000 less than the previous week, the Labor Department said.
Experts expected a drop of 338,000, to 2.1 million, according to Trading Economics.
According to the revised data of the ministry, a week earlier the number of requests was 2.446 million, and not 2.438 million, as previously reported.
The total number of applications filed since March 21 is 40.7 million, Trading Economics notes.
The average number of applications over the past 4 weeks, a less volatile indicator, decreased following the results of the fifth consecutive week – by 436,000, to 2.608 million from the revised 3.044 million.
The number of Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits for the week ending May 16 fell by 3.86 million to 21.052 million from a record 24.912 million the previous week. Experts expected growth of the indicator by 677,000 from the previously announced figure from 25.073 million.