Weekly Jobless Claims Drop to Less Than 300,000

December 5, 2013 by Jon C. Ogg

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More strong news is out on the jobs front. The U.S. Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims fell to 298,000 in the latest week. Dow Jones was calling for about 320,000, and Bloomberg was calling for roughly 322,000 in this report.

Last week’s report was revised higher to 321,000 from an initial report of 316,000. The four-week average was down slightly to 322,250.

A key measurement we watch is the continuing jobless claims, what we refer to as the army of unemployed. It is reported with a lag of one week, but this also fell by 21,000 to 2,744,000.

Unfortunately, good news is bad news when it comes to employment number strength right now. Stronger jobs data means a sooner start of the tapering of the Fed’s bond purchases.

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