Labor Department Reported Initial Jobless Claims Lower by 15,000

More positive economic news this morning. The U.S. Labor Department reported initial jobless claims fell again last week by 15,000 to 372,000 compared to analyst expectations of 373,000.Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 387,000 from 381,000 while the average of new claims over the past four weeks dropped by 3,250 to 373,250.The Labor Department also reported 7.22 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week ended December 17, down 8,311 from the prior week.This is a positive outlook on unemployment in the United States. Claims have now fallen in four of the last five weeks to its lowest level since June 2008.

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