WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 502,000 for the week ending Nov. 7, dropping for the second straight week as the four-week average for initial claims dropped to its lowest level in almost a year, the Labor Department reported today.
Continuing claims dropped by 139,000 to 5.631 million for the week ending Oct. 31, the largest weekly drop since August. Continuing claims have fallen for eight consecutive weeks, and are now at their lowest level since March.
Economists expected 510,000 initial claims and 5.700 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate provided by Thomson Reuters.
The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile figure, dropped to 519,750, the lowest level since Nov. 29, 2008. The four-week average for continuing claims dropped to 5.791 million, the ninth consecutive decline.
Initial claims were revised to 514,000 from 512,000 for the week ending Oct. 31. Continuing claims were revised to 5.770 million from 5.749 million.
No states were estimated in this report, a Labor Department official said.
Last week, President Obama signed into law a bill that will extend unemployment benefits for some workers. The law will not have an impact on the seasonally adjusted continuing claims figures, a Labor Department official said.
The emergency extensions are not comparable to previous years and are not included in seasonal calculations, the official said. The extensions will take several weeks to show up in the unadjusted figures, the official said.
