WASHINGTON - Initial jobless claims dropped 3,000 to 420,000 for the week ending Dec. 11, matching economists' expectations as the four-week moving average for initial claims dropped to its lowest level in more than two years, the Labor Department reported Thursday morning.
But continuing claims rose 22,000 to 4.135 million for the week ending Dec. 4, much higher than the 4.050 million predicted by a median estimate of economists polled by Thomson Reuters.
Initial claims for the week ending Dec. 4 were upwardly revised to 423,000 from an originally reported 421,000 figure last week. Continuing claims for the week ending Nov. 27 were revised to 4.113 million from an earlier reported 4.086 million.
For the Dec. 11 week, the four-week moving average for initial claims, a less volatile figure, dropped to 422,750, the lowest seasonally adjusted moving average for initial claims since the week ending Aug. 2, 2008, when it was 419,000. The four-week average has been steadily declining since August.
