The number of Americans filing for new unemployment insurance unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting a lingering tightness in the U.S. labor market that may impact the Federal Reserve’s upcoming monetary policy decisions.

During the week ending on September 2, initial jobless claims, which serve as a proxy for layoffs, declined to 216,000. This represented a decrease compared to the previously adjusted figure of 229,000 from the prior week. Economists had predicted that this number would rise to 234,000. Furthermore, the four-week moving average, used to mitigate the effects of weekly data volatility, also decreased slightly to 229,250.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Labor Department, there was a 40,000 drop in the number of individuals receiving benefits after their initial week of aid, bringing the total to 1.679 million. This decline in continuing claims suggests that a considerable number of workers are undergoing short spells of unemployment, a pattern consistent with historical trends.

“The labor market remains robust,” stated Kathy Jones, Chief Fixed Income Strategist at Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW), in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.