The U.S. Department of Labor released the numbers for weekly jobless claims Thursday morning. This week saw a huge drop in claims, almost as if it was correcting for the spike from the previous week.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the weekly jobless claims reading at 280,000 compared to a Bloomberg estimate of 305,000. This is down 36,000 from the revised spike in claims of 316,000 that occurred in the previous week. This level is the lowest reading for weekly jobs claims since mid-July.
The four-week moving average read at 299,500, which was down from the previous week’s average of 304,250. The average was moved up slightly higher from the spike last week, but this large fall in weekly jobless claims has driven the average back down.
Reported with a one-week lag, continuing claims had a reading of 2.43 million. This was down 63,000 from the previous week’s reading of 2.48 million. This is the lowest that continuing claims have been since May 2007.
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