Fewer Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance payments last week, showing the labor market is starting 2012 on better footing than a year earlier.
Applications for jobless benefits (INJCJC) decreased 15,000 in the week ended Dec. 31 to 372,000, Labor Department figures showed today. The median estimate of 38 economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast 375,000 claims. The average over the past four weeks declined to the lowest level in more than three years.
The decrease in firings indicates employers may be getting more comfortable with their headcounts and their economic outlooks as the year begins. Economists forecast a Labor Department report tomorrow will show hiring picked up and joblessness held below 9 percent in December.
“Claims are moving in the right direction,” said Aneta Markowska, a senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York. “The labor market is pretty much treading water, buts it’s definitely not as far behind as last year.’
Companies added 325,000 workers in December, more than forecast, adding to evidence the labor market was gaining momentum heading into 2012, figures from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Employer Services also showed today.
The December ADP number may have reflected the so-called purge effect. Workers, regardless of when they are dismissed or quit, sometimes remain on company records until December, when businesses update, or purge, their figures with ADP.
