Jobless claims in the U.S. fell by 25,000 filings during the week ending Dec. 1, continuing a three-week trend of constant unemployment drops, the Labor Department said.
Overall, 370,000 individuals filed initial claims for unemployment, down from the previous week’s revised figure of 395,000 jobless filings.
Still, the four-week moving average edged up by more than 2,000 filings to 408,000 claims.
In previous weeks, Superstorm Sandy made it difficult to gauge the true unemployment situation due to the storm disrupting jobless data.
The mortgage finance market tracks employment numbers to evaluate the health of U.S. consumers.
Consumers in a healthy economy with work stability are generally in a better situation to maintain current mortgages and take out new loans for homes.
Analysts with Barclays research say, “Nearly all the rise in jobless claims from the landfall of Hurricane Sandy in late October appear to have reversed as the level of weekly claims at 370,000 is in line with the four-week moving average of 372,000 in the week ending Nov. 3.”
The research team expects the November employment report from the government on Friday to show a 50,000 increase in payrolls, a 55,000 jump in private payrolls and a one-tenth jump in the unemployment rate to 8%.
