Jobless Claims Plunge to Jan. 2001 Low [View All]

[papau]

edited as I forgot rule to title with headline

Jobless claims fall to 348,000 in latest week, lowest since Jan. 2001

http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GLSPAAV0J35FKCRBAEOCFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=3768822
Jobless Claims Plunge to Jan. 2001 Low
Thu November 6, 2003 08:32 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits took an unexpectedly sharp plunge last week, reaching a level not seen since before the economy tumbled into recession in 2001, a government report showed on Thursday.

Initial claims for state unemployment aid fell 43,000 to 348,000 in the week ending Nov. 1 from a revised 391,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the lowest claims level since late January 2001, two months before the recession began.

Wall Street economists had expected claims to slip to 380,000 from a strike-elevated 386,000 initially reported for the week ending Oct. 25.

A spokesman for the department said he could not point to any special factors to account for the big drop in claims last week, but said problems with seasonally adjusting the data could be a factor. "Every week we encourage (looking at) the four-week average. This is certainly one of those weeks," he said. <snip>

On Friday, the department releases its employment report for October. Financial market economists are looking for U.S. payrolls to rise 55,000 after a 57,000 gain in September. They expect the jobless rate to hold steady at 6.1 percent.
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