US initial jobless claims fall by 22,000
Americans lined up for unemployment benefits at a decelerated pace in the week ended 14 December, according to the Labor Department.
Initial jobless claims fell by 22,000 to 220,000 last week, beating expectations for a smaller drop to 230,000. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, initial claims sank by 57,932.
Outstanding claims, on the other hand, eased by a smaller reading of 5,000 to 1.87m, while the four-week-moving average, which aims to strip out week-to-week volatility, edged higher by 225,500.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% for the week ended 7 December, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com