Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell broadly in line with expectations, according to official data released on Thursday.
The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending December 10 fell to a seasonally adjusted 254,000 from the previous week’s total of 258,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to total 255,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market.
This was its 93th consecutive week below that threshold, its longest stretch since 1970.
Continuing jobless claims increased to 2.018 million from an upwardly revised 2.007 million in the preceding week.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to increase to 2.025 million.
The four-week moving average was 257,750, up from the previous week's 252,500.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.