The FINANCIAL — The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits declined last week, a sign of a healthy labor market, according to Nasdaq.
Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., decreased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 in the week ended Dec. 19, the Labor Department said on December 24. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 270,000 new claims last week.
The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out weekly ups and downs, rose by 1,750 to 272,500 last week.
Claims had declined steadily since 2009 until this year, when they touched a four-decade low in mid-July. They’ve mostly stayed near that mark since.
Fewer layoffs typically means hiring is picking up. Federal Reserve officials cited labor market improvements as the driving factor behind this month’s decision to raise benchmark interest rates. Rates were pinned near zero for seven years.
In November, employers added a seasonally adjusted 211,000 jobs to payrolls and added a robust 298,000 in October, suggesting the job market gained momentum this fall. Still, the pace of hiring in 2015 has slowed from 2014.
Thursday’s report showed the number of continuing unemployment benefits, claims drawn by workers for more than a week, fell by 47,000 to 2,195,000 in the week ended Dec. 12. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
The Labor Department said there were no special factors affecting the latest weekly numbers.
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