Investing November 26, 2003

Jobless Claims Figure Drops 11,000

November 26, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The number of Americans lining up for first-time jobless claims continued its downward trend with an 11,000-claims drop last week.
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According to the US Department of Labor (DoL), the claims figure for the week ending November 22 came in at 351,000, down from a revised 362,000. That follows a 15,000-claims drop for the week ending November 15 (See Jobless Claims Head South Again ).

The closely watched four-week moving claims average was also down for the November 22 week. The average dropped by 10,000 to 358,750 from a revised 368,750.

Finally, the number of Americans forced to cling to the jobless rolls because of difficulties in finding work also dropped – going down 105,000 for the week ending November 15 to 3.36 million, down from 3.44 million.

The DoL released the jobless numbers a day early because of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

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