U.S. jobless claims fall, signaling ongoing labor-market resilience
Weekly initial claims drop to 224,000; four-week average climbs; November unemployment rate at 4.6% as job gains slow
WASHINGTON — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell by 13,000 last week to 224,000, the Labor Department said Thursday, keeping filings in a historically healthy range even as questions linger about the labor market's momentum. Analysts had expected about 200,000 new claims.
Claims for the week ending December 13 declined from 237,000 the prior week. The four-week moving average rose to 217,500, up 500 from the previous week, smoothing volatility. The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the week ending December 6 rose by 67,000 to 1.9 million.
Despite the weekly decline, the government also reported stronger November job gains of 64,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent for November, the highest since 2021. October payrolls fell 105,000 as federal workers departed after the end of the fiscal year. Labor Department revisions knocked 33,000 jobs off August and September payrolls.
Fed policy notes: The Federal Reserve trimmed its benchmark lending rate by a quarter point, its third straight cut. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that recent job figures could be revised lower by as much as 60,000, which would imply average monthly job losses of about 25,000 since the spring.
Several large employers have announced layoffs recently, including UPS, General Motors, Amazon and Verizon, though the impact on government data can take months to show up.