After rising to the highest level since the summer, new applications for unemployment benefits fell by 11,000 to 271,000 in the second week of December, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.
That was just above the projection of 270,000 new claims from economists polled by Bloomberg. The claims numbers are adjusted for seasonal variations.
The four-week moving average of claims also edged down by 250 to 270,500. That average appears to have crept up or leveled off since hitting four-decade lows over the late summer, but it is still ultra-low.
Few jobless claims are taken as a positive sign for the health of the U.S. economy, because they suggest that layoffs are scarce. Of all the indicators about the economy, the unemployment benefit claims numbers are among the brightest.
There is some evidence, however, to suggest that the jobless claims statistics may have lost some of their predictive power. It’s possible that fewer people are bothering to apply for unemployment benefits now that the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent.
Nevertheless, a roughly 270,000 monthly average in November was enough to yield 211,000 new payroll jobs in the monthly jobs report, a relatively strong number.
The Labor Department said that there were no special factors affecting Thursday’s data. There were some fairly large increases in claims in some states: California saw an increase of over 22,000, while New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas all saw increases over 10,000.
Overall, there were 2.35 million people receiving benefits of all duration, which are available for up to 26 weeks. That is down from 2.58 million a year ago.
