The Labor Department reported on Thursday.
Total unemployment insurance applications for the week ended December 11 was 206,000, higher than the Dow Jones estimate of 195,000 and up 18,000 from the previous week’s revised upward revision of 188,000.
Although total weekly claims increased, the four-week moving average, which helps balance the volatility of the numbers, totaled 203,750, the lowest level since government data, according to government data. from 15 November 1969, according to government data.
Both numbers are more relevant to the pre-pandemic environment than the overwhelming numbers since layoffs exploded in March 2020, the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak. Weekly claims peaked at 6.15 million in April 2020 and remained above 300,000 before finally falling below that number in early October.
Continuing the claims, data that ran after headlines a week, fell 154,000 to 1,845 million, the lowest since March 14, 2020.
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