WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After reporting a significant increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing initial jobless claims pulled back in the week ended December 14th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 234,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 252,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to drop to 225,000.
The smaller than expected pullback came after jobless claims reached their highest level since September of 2017 in the previous week.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 225,500, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 224,000.
The report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also climbed by 51,000 to 1.722 million in the week ended December 7th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims rose to 1,683,500, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,677,250.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2019 AFX News
