Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week unexpectedly fell, at the labor market continues to strengthen, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Dec. 8 fell by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 225,000 from the previous week’s total of 236,000, the Department of Labor said.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise to 239,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 234,750, down 6,750 from the previous week. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Continuing jobless claims declined to 1.886 million from 1.913 million in the preceding week, which was revised up from 1.908 million.