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National jobless claims drop following two-week rise

Applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week, showing a turnaround in the direction of improvement for the labor market. After two consecutive weeks of a reported rise in claims, the week ending Nov. 28 showed a 75,000 decrease.

In the week ending November 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

The previous week’s level was revised up by 9,000 from 778,000 to 787,000. The 4-week moving average was 739,500, a decrease of 11,250 from the previous week’s revised average.

Advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.8 percent for the week ending November 21, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the previous week’s revised rate. The previous week’s rate was revised up by 0.1 from 4.1 to 4.2 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 21 was 5,520,000, a decrease of 569,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 18,000 from 6,071,000 to 6,089,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,194,250, a decrease of 425,500 from the previous week’s revised average.