Initial jobless claims plunged 26,000 to 319,000 in the week ended May 3, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Processing Content
Claims for the week ended April 26 were revised to 345,000 from the 344,000 initially reported.
Continuing jobless claims were 2.685 million in the week ended April 26, down from the downwardly revised 2.761 million the week before, first reported as 2.771 million.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 325,000 initial and 2.765 million continuing claims.
The four-week average of initial claims were up 4,500 in the week ended May 3 to 324,750.
