The number of Americans applying for new unemployment benefits fell last week, staying at a low level consistent with a healthy U.S. labour market.
Figures released Thursday by the U.S. Labor Department showed initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., decreased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 in the week ended Dec. 24.
The decline matched economists’ expectations and partly reversed a jump in the prior week; claims for the week ended Dec. 17 were left unrevised at 275,000.
Jobless claims have now hovered below 300,000 for 95 consecutive weeks, the longest such streak since 1970—when the U.S. workforce and population were far smaller than they are today.
Still, data on unemployment applications can be volatile from week to week, and especially around holidays when seasonal adjustments are difficult. A more stable measure, the four-week moving average of initial claims, fell by 750 to 263,000 last week.
The department said no special factors affected last week’s claims data.
The agency on Thursday also said continuing unemployment claims, reflecting benefits drawn by workers for longer than a week, rose by 63,000 to 2,102,000 in the week ended Dec. 17. Data on continuing claims are released with a one-week lag.
