WASHINGTON - Initial jobless claims decreased 24,000 to 435,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Nov. 6, more than cancelling out the upwardly revised 22,000 increase reported the previous week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday morning.
Continuing claims for the week ended Oct. 30 dropped to 4.301 million, the third decline in four weeks and the lowest level since roughly the height of the financial crisis - the week of Nov. 22, 2008.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 450,000 initial claims and 4.500 million continuing claims, according to the median estimates.
Initial claims for the week ended Oct. 30 were revised slightly higher to 459,000 from 457,000 reported last week.
For the Nov. 6 week, the four-week moving average of initial claims fell to 446,500 from a revised 454,500 the previous week, originally reported as 456,000. For the Oct. 30 week, the four-week average for continuing claims decreased to 4.388 million, the third straight weekly decline. Meanwhile, continuing claims for the week of Oct. 23 were upwardly revised to 4.387 million from an originally reported 4.340 million.
