U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop To Three-Year Low

(RTTNews) - The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell to a three-year low in the week ended November 29th.

The report said initial jobless claims slid to 191,000, a decrease of 27,000 from the previous week's revised level of 218,000.

Economist had expected jobless claims to rise to 220,000 from the 216,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected decline, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 189,000 in the week ended September 24, 2022.

"Initial claims can be subject to big swings at this time of the year, so we won't read much into one week's number," Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

She added, "Still, initial claims have remained in a range consistent with a relatively low pace of job losses despite recent layoff announcements."

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also fell to 214,750, a decrease of 9,500 from the previous week's revised average of 224,250.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also slipped by 4,000 to 1.939 million in the week ended November 22nd.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dipped to 1,945,250, a decrease of 6,250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,951,500.

"Continued claims were little changed in the week ended November 22 and are in line with the weak hiring rate that characterizes the current labor market," said Vanden Houten.