US weekly jobless claims fall slightly

() – The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits dipped to the lowest in a month last week, consistent with a cooling but still-healthy U.S. labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 219,000 for the week ended Dec. 21, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by had forecast 224,000 claims for the latest week.

The number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, a proxy for hiring, rose 46,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.910 million – the highest since November 2021 – during the week ending Dec. 14, the claims report showed. Economists had been expecting the level of continued claims to be 1.880 million.