Initial claims for US jobless insurance benefits were unchanged last week, official data showed Thursday in a sign of stablization of the troubled labor market.
The seasonally adjusted number of new unemployment claims in the week ending November 14 remained unchanged at 505,000, slightly higher than the 504,000 expected by most economists, the Labor Department said.
It revised higher the claims registered during the week to November 7 to 505,000 from 502,000 previously.
The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell to 514,000, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 520,500.
The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits also fell.
The Labor Department’s figures showed the number of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 7 was 5.611 million, a decrease of 39,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 5.65 million.
It was however still higher than the 5.598 million expected by most analysts.
The weekly report offers an up-to-date snapshot of the job market, critical to US economic recovery from recession since December 2007.
The latest initial claims reading supported a trend of slowing job losses since a March peak and was the lowest since January.
The US unemployment rate shot up to 10.2 percent in October as another 190,000 jobs were shed, the government said earlier this month.
The jobless rate, up from 9.8 percent in September, was the highest since 1983 but the number of jobs lost narrowed to the lowest level in over a year.
The US House of Representatives may pass a new economic stimulus bill by December 18 in a bid to combat unemployment, a top congressional ally of President Barack Obama said Tuesday.
With rising unemployment ahead of mid-term congressional elections in November next year, Obama and his Democratic partners have found fresh urgency in tackling the issue again, nine months after enacting a 787-billion-dollar stimulus package.
Obama has also called for jobs “summit” to be held at the White House next month in a bid to combat joblessness.
