Jobless Claims Decline by 9,000 for Week

Jobless claims declined by 9,000 for the week ended Nov. 2, Bloomberg News reported.

Americans filed 336,000 claims for unemployment benefits last week from a revised 345,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department reported Nov. 7. The average forecast from economists surveyed by Bloomberg was a decrease to 335,000 weekly claims.

“The big issue for the job market over the last couple of years has not been job losses, it’s really been an issue of job creation, and that’s what we’re waiting for,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc., told Bloomberg.

The four-week moving average of jobless claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 348,250 last week from 357,500.