New weekly jobless claims ticked up slightly last week to hold near a 52-year low.
The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday and here are the main metrics compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
Initial jobless claims, week ended Dec. 11: 206,000 versus 200,000 expected, and an upwardly revised 188,000 during prior week.
Continuing claims, week ended Dec. 4: 1.8 million versus 1.9 million expected, and an upwardly revised 1.99 million during prior week.
First-time unemployment filings fell sharply to reach their lowest level since 1969 in early December, coming in below 190,000. And even with the latest move higher, the four-week moving average for new claims – which smooths out volatility in the weekly data – came in at the lowest level since November 1969, dropping by 16,000 week-over-week to reach 203,750.
And continuing claims, while still somewhat above pre-pandemic levels, have also come down sharply from their pandemic-era high. This metric tracking the total number of individuals claiming benefits across regular state programs peaked at more than 23 million in May 2020 but came in below 2 million for a third straight week in this week’s report and reached the lowest level since March 2020.
Click here to read the full story from Emily McCormick at Yahoo Finance.