WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims rose 17,000 to 474,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Dec. 5, the first uptick after five straight weeks of declines, the Labor Department reported today.
But seasonally adjusted continuing claims fell about 303,000 to 5.157 million for the week ending Nov. 28, from the previous week's revised level of 5.460 million, originally reported as 5.465 million. It was the largest drop for continuing claims since the week ending July 4, when it fell 591,000 to 6.313 million.
Economists had predicted a 460,000 initial claims level the week of Dec. 5 and 5.44 million in continuing claims for the week of Nov. 28, according to median estimates from Thomson Reuters.
Though initial claims rose 17,000 from the previous week's unrevised 457,000 figure, the weekly level of initial claims has steadily fallen from a high of 674,000 claims in March of this year and are generally expected to fall to about 450,000 by Christmas, economists said.
