Weekly US jobless claims decline during latest week

(Sharecast News) - The number of people filing for first-time jobless claims continued to decline during the latest week. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms the number of initial unemployment claims dropped by 10,000 over the week ending on 4 January to reach 201,000.

Economists had forecast a reading of 218,000.

The four-week moving average meanwhile, which aims to smooth out the fluctuations in the data from one week to the next, dropped by 10,250 to 213,000.

Secondary unemployment claims on the other hand rose by 33,000 over the week ending on 28 December, hitting 1.867m.