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Jobless claims fall to lowest level since 2008
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Labor Department released a report on December 22 indicating that the number of weekly jobless claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level since April 2008.
The total number of seasonally adjusted jobless claims dropped by 4,000 to reach 364,000. This drop was largely different from the median increase to 380,000 that was supplied by 45 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Market experts who participated in a Reuters poll had forecast a similar increase to 375,000.
"Holiday hiring is clearly cutting into unemployment much more deeply than it did last year or the two years prior," Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, told RTT News. "Of course, we cannot know if claims will stay this low when the holiday season is over, but for now it is encouraging to see thousands more Americans have a month or two of unexpected income, even if it is temporary."
The four-week moving average decreased by 8,000 to hit 380,250 from the previous figure of 388,2500. The media outlet reports that this metric hit its lowest reading since June 2008.
"The employment situation continues to show strong signs of a recovery and goes against the grain of what people felt four months ago," Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak and Co. in New York, told Reuters.
The Labor Department report indicated that continuing claims fell to 3.546 million during the week ending December 10 from the previous week's adjusted level of 3.625 million. According to RTT News, the weekly reading for these claims was the lowest since the week that ended September 13, 2008.
MSNBC reports that a total of 6.7 million Americans are collecting unemployment at this time. If federal emergency benefits are not extended, approximately 2.2 million of those collecting will cease to be eligible in February and an additional 3.6 million will lose assistance by the time March is over.
Data provided by the government agency indicates that the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November, which is the lowest reading in 2.5 years. Until that month, the jobless rate had been persistently hovering around 9 percent for 28 months.
Investors who participate in online trading might benefit from monitoring weekly Labor Department reports on jobless claims.
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