DJ US Jobless Claims -12K To 323K Nov 20 Week; Consensus +1K
By Joseph Rebello
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The number of U.S. workers filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a three-month low last week, a sign the job market is rebounding.
In a surprise to Wall Street, initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 323,000 in the week that ended Nov. 20, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The average for the last month, moreover, dropped to a four-year low of 332,000.
Wall Street expected a small increase in initial claims. The average forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC called for a gain of 1,000 claims. The numbers suggested employers are expanding payrolls at a robust pace in November.
Employers sharply accelerated the pace of hiring in October, adding 337,000 non-farm jobs to their payrolls. That brought the number of jobs created since the summer of 2003 to a net 2.2 million. Economists say the continuing decline in the volume of initial jobless claims this month suggests non-farm job growth of at least 200,000 in November.
The rebound, analysts say, has raised the odds that the Federal Reserve will persist with the campaign of interest-rate increases it began in June. The Fed raised its key interest rate to a three-year high of 2% on Nov. 10. Wall Street expects an additional quarter-point increase in December.
In its report Wednesday, the Labor Department said the number of workers on the nation's unemployment rolls also declined in the week of Nov. 13, the latest period for which the data is available. That number - known as continuing claims - fell by 29,000 to a three-and-a-half-year low of 2,755,000. The unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance held steady at 2.2%.
In all, 49 states and territories reported an decrease in unadjusted initial claims for the week of Nov. 13, while four reported an increase. No state reported an increase of more than 1,000 claims.
California reported the biggest decrease, a drop of 6,266 claims that it said reflected the fact that workers had fewer days to file their applications because of the Veterans Day holiday. Florida reported a decline of 5,858 claims because of fewer layoffs in the construction, trade, service and manufacturing industries, and in agriculture.
A Labor Department statistician said the volume of jobless claims in Florida was back at levels that prevailed before the state was hit by a series of hurricanes after mid-August. The disruptions caused by those hurricanes doubled the state's claims for a few weeks.
The Labor Department revised its previous estimate of initial claims for the week of Nov. 13, raising it by 1,000 to 335,000. Such revisions are routine.
-By Joseph Rebello; 202-862-9279; e-mail:
joseph.rebello@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-24-04 0830ET |
