Weekly unemployment claims drop 22,000 to 432,000
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ShareBy Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 432,000 in the week ended Dec. 26, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to decrease to 455,000. The four-week average of initial claims dropped 5,500 to 460,250. Meanwhile, the number of continuing claims in the week ended Dec. 19 declined 57,000 to 4.98 million. The four-week average of continuing claims fell 122,500 to 5.1 million. The gradual decline in continuing claims over the past few months suggest companies are no longer getting rid of workers, and may even be hiring. Yet year-end data tends to be especially volatile because of holidays, bad weather and other one-time factors, economists say.