The holidays are usually a sign for a cheer, but the Labor Department’s freshest round of weekly jobless claims may be some of the ‘almost’ best news on the jobs front in some time. We had already seen that jobs were increasing in 40 or 41 states, but the latest round of weekly jobless claims came in at “only” 407,000 for the week.
This is a drop of 34,000 on a revised basis and the prior week’s figure was revised higher to 441,000 from 439,000. Dow Jones had estimates of roughly 435,000. The figure will not be enough to drop unemployment but it is closer to have a 300,000-handle than we have seen since back in summer of 2008.
The four-week average also fell by fell by 7,500 to 436,000 for the week. The army of unemployed measured by the continuing jobless claims shrank by 142,000 to 4,182,000.
A great start to the holiday season, still a long way to go.
JON C. OGG
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