The U.S. Department of Labor has released the latest report on weekly jobless claims. Initial claims came in at 294,000, compared to both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg consensus estimates of 290,000. The previous reading remained unrevised to 298,000 claims.
The four-week moving average came in at 290,500, which dropped only 250 from the previous reading of 290,750 claims. The number of claims fell below the 300,000 level in late July and has consistently remained there since. This is the longest that the four-week moving average has remained below the 300,000 level since 2000.
The Labor Department said that no special factors had an impact on this past week’s reported initial jobless claims.
Continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag, increased by 101,000 to 2.5 million for the week that ended December 27.
In the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, job creation is seemingly on the right track for recording its best year since 1999.
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