New applications for unemployment benefits fell to 258,000 to start the month of December, the Labor Department reported Thursday, dropping back down after spiking to 268,000 the week before.
The plunge was roughly in line with forecasters’ expectations, and a bit of good news to start the month.
Fewer jobless claims, which are adjusted for seasonal variations, is viewed as a good sign, because it suggests that layoffs are rare.
With Thursday’s numbers, claims are more than low enough to keep the labor market improving. New claims have averaged 252,500 over the past month, while economists calculate that any number below 300,000 suggests that the unemployment rate will not rise.
The overall picture of the jobs market is one that will likely be robust when President Obama hands it off to President-elect Trump, after years of fallout from the financial crisis.
The unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent in November, the lowest since the spring of 2007 and actually below the level that Federal Reserve officials see as consistent with a fully healthy economy in the long run.
“We know there is no serious problem with the labor market because the unemployment rate signals the economy has reached full employment with the unemployment rate at 4.6%,” wrote MUFG Union Bank economist Chris Rupkey.
With just 1.4 unemployed workers available for every job, hiring has slowed throughout 2016, a reflection that the labor market is getting tighter. In turn, wage growth, although still relatively low, has accelerated.
Altogether, just over 2 million people were taking unemployment benefits in the last week of November. Even during at the height of the housing bubble, when the labor market was unsustainably hot, more people were receiving benefits.
