WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims dropped by 22,000 to 432,000 for the week ending Dec. 26, the lowest number of initial claims reported for any week this year, the Labor Department reported today.
Continuing claims dropped by 57,000 to 4.981 million in the week ending Dec. 19 and are at their lowest level since early February. They have steadily dropped from a high of 6.904 million in late June.
Economists had expected 460,000 in initial claims for the week ending Dec. 26, while they had expected 5.110 million in continuing claims for the week ending Dec. 19, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Meanwhile, last week's 432,000 initial claims figure follows an upwardly revised 454,000 figure for the week ending Dec. 19, initially reported 452,000. Continuing claims for the week ending Dec. 19 were revised lower to 5.038 million from an originally reported 5.076 million.
The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile figure, was 460,250 for the week ending Dec. 26 and has fallen for 17 consecutive weeks to the lowest level since September 2008. The four-week average for continuing claims fell to 5.101 million and has fallen for 14 consecutive weeks.
