New jobless claims remain extremely low, and continuing claims fall to 15 year lows. Clinton-era numbers.

The labor market may have been improving following the sample period for tomorrow's employment report, a possibility hinted at from two straight weeks of unusually low readings for initial jobless claims. Claims came in at a much lower-than-expected 265,000 in the May 2nd week, holding on to nearly all their improvement in the prior week when they fell 34,000 to 262,000. Both the latest and the prior readings are far below the 296,000 reading in the April 18 week -- which was the sample week of the April employment report.

Many readings throughout the report are at 15-year lows including the 4-week average for initial claims, down 4,250 to 279,500.

Continuing claims data, reported with a week's lag, are also at 15-year lows including the level for the April 25 week of 2.228 million which is down 28,000 from the prior week. The 4-week average is also at a new 15-year low, down 20,000 to 2.272 million. The unemployment rate for insured workers is unchanged at 1.7 percent.

Continuing claims showed convincing improvement throughout April with improvement coming on strong for initial claims over the last two weeks. There are no special factors affecting the report, a strong one that will undoubtedly raise a lot of chatter among the hawks at the Fed.