Latest Week Brought Fewer Initial Jobless Claims

By Matt Grossman

A smaller flow of workers filed for new jobless benefits last week, evidence of a relatively stable employment picture ahead of Friday's report on the labor market in October.

The week through Oct. 26 brought 216,000 initial jobless claims, compared with 228,000 a week earlier. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had been expecting to see 230,000 initial claims.

The number of continued claims, a gauge of the size of the unemployed population, fell to 1.86 million in the week through Oct. 19, compared with 1.89 million the week before.

Gradual cooling in the labor market and solid growth have combined to boost confidence in a soft landing for the economy as the Federal Reserve is expected to continue cutting interest rates next week. Economists have forecast that the unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.1% in October.

Write to Matt Grossman at matt.grossman@wsj.com