Jobless Claims Drop to Near Four-Year Low

The fewest Americans in nearly four years filed for first-time claims for unemployment in the week ending Jan. 14, a sign that the labor market is gaining traction. There were 352,000 jobless claims, a decrease of 50,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department announced. The four-week moving average, a less volatile number that flattens out week-to-week fluctuations in the data, was 379,000, a decrease of 3,500 from the prior week. Economists say that between 350,000 and 375,000 indicates sustained job growth. The drop in jobless claims was the biggest since Sept. 2005, when claims initially surged and then plummeted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bloomberg reported. The number of Americans filing for continuing unemployment claims during the week ending Jan. 7 was 3,432,000, a decrease of 215,000 from the preceding week, and the lowest level since Sept. 2008. The four-week moving average was 3,576,250, a decrease of 34,000 from the prior week. States reported 3,026,855 persons claiming emergency unemployment benefits for the week ending Dec. 31 (the most recent data available), an increase of 100,179 from the prior week. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Dec. 31 was 7,826,665, an increase of 493,566 from the previous week. The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 7 were in California, Georgia, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. The largest decreases were in Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, and Wisconsin.