Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell by 3,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 223,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Economists had expected weekly jobless claims to fall by 1,000 to 225,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 226,000.
The four-week moving average was 226,250, a decline of 3,000 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 fell to 1.755 million from 1.805 million in the preceding week, compared to expectations for a drop to 1.775 million.