Jobless Claims Fall to Two-Month Low

Initial jobless claims fell to a two-month low last week, the Labor Department reported Nov. 27.

Claims for the week ended Nov. 23 fell by 10,000 to 316,000, a sign the labor market is showing resilience, Bloomberg News reported.

The number of claims was below analysts’ median forecast of 330,000 new claims, according to Bloomberg.

“The decline in jobless claims is encouraging,” Michelle Meyer, senior U.S. economist at Bank of America Corp., told Bloomberg.

“The challenge has been to see a ramp-up in hiring. Corporations have remained quite cautious,” Meyer said.

“We’re discounting this a little bit, only because some of this is just seasonal noise,” Omair Sharif, an economist for RBS Securities, told Bloomberg. “The pace of layoffs hasn’t changed that significantly in the last few months.”

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 331,750 from 339,250 the previous week.

Continuing jobless claims for the week ended Nov. 16 dropped by 91,000 to 2.78 million.