The data from
the Labour Department declined on
Thursday that the number of applications for unemployment declined more than anticipated last week.
According to
the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 22,000 to 220,000 for the week that ended December 14.
This marked the lowest weekly total in three
weeks. Economists had forecast
230,000 new claims last week. Claims for the
prior week were left unrevised at 242,000.
Meanwhile, the
four-week moving average of jobless claims rose to 225,500 from
an unrevised 224,250 in the previous week. This marked the highest count since early November.
As for
continuing claims, they decreased to 1,874,000 from a downwardly revised
1,879,000 (from 1,886,000) in the previous week. Economists
had predicted continuing jobless claims of 1,890,000.