Initial jobless claims dropped by 28,000 to 452,000 for the week ending Dec. 19, the lowest number of initial claims this year, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Continuing claims dropped by 127,000 to 5.076 million in the week ending Dec. 12 and are at the lowest level since February.
Initial claims are at the lowest level since September 2008 and have dropped from a high of 674,000 in March.
Economists expected 470,000 initial claims and 5.120 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Initial claims for the week ending Dec. 12 were revised higher to 480,000 from the 430,000 first reported. Continuing claims were revised higher to 5.203 million from 5.186 million.
