Weekly Jobless Claims Fall by 21,000

Initial jobless claims declined by 21,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Nov. 21.

Claims for the week ended Nov. 16 fell to 323,000 from a revised 344,000 the prior week.

The number of claims was below analysts’ median forecast of 335,000 new claims, Bloomberg News reported.

“We’re discounting this a little bit, only because some of this is just seasonal noise,” Omair Sharif, an economist for RBS Securities, told Bloomberg. “The pace of layoffs hasn’t changed that significantly in the last few months,” he said.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 338,500, from 345,250, the previous week.

Continuing jobless claims for the previous week ended Nov. 9 increased by 66,000 to 2.88 million.