WASHINGTON — Initial jobless claims unexpectedly dropped 34,000 to 388,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Dec. 25, the Labor Department reported Thursday morning.
The figure was beneath the 415,000 claims predicted by a median estimate of economists polled by Thomson Reuters. But Labor economists said there was no unusual claims activity in any state or group of states to explain the decline.
The decline follows an upwardly revised 422,000 claims figure for the week ending Dec. 18, originally reported as 420,000.
Meanwhile, last week's four-week moving average for initial claims, a less volatile figure, also dropped, by 12,500 to 414,000.
Continuing claims rose 57,000 to 4.128 million for the week ending Dec. 18, higher than the 4.110 million of continuing claims predicted by a median estimate of economists polled by Thomson Reuters.
Continuing claims for the week ending Dec. 11 were revised to 4.071 million from an earlier reported 4.064 million.
