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A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by much more than expected in the week ended December 30th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims declined to 202,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's revised level of 220,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 216,000 from the 218,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the bigger than expected drop, initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 200,000 in the week ended October 14th.
"The claims data are still subject to seasonal noise, but looking past that volatility, the initial claims data are consistent with labor market conditions that are loosening but not unraveling and still characterized by relatively few layoffs," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.
The report said the less volatile four-week moving average also dipped to 207,750, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average of 212,500.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also slid by 31,000 to 1.855 million in the week ended December 23rd.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims edged down to 1,867,000, a decrease of 250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,867,250.
"Continued claims have stabilized after climbing through much of Q4, although seasonal factors are also making continued claims data harder to interpret," said Vanden Houten.
"Nonetheless, we think the continued claims figures are consistent with other indicators showing a softening demand for labor," she added. "That should add to the Fed's confidence that inflation is on its way back to its 2% target, allowing the FOMC to begin cutting rates in May."
On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on the employment situation in the month of December.
Economists currently expect employment to increase by 170,000 jobs in December after jumping by 199,000 jobs in November. The unemployment rate is expected to inch up to 3.8 percent from 3.7 percent.
