The number of U.S. workers making new jobless claims fell last week to below pre-hurricane levels according to a report from the U.S. Labor Department.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 17,000 to 320,000, largely in line with Wall Street forecasts.
Before the successive storms smashed the U.S. Gulf Coast region — with Hurricane Katrina in August and Rita in September — jobless claims figures had shown the U.S. labor market stabilizing at healthy levels.
A more comprehensive look at employment will come on Friday, when the government releases its November payrolls report. Economists polled by Reuters expect the report to show the U.S. economy created about 210,000 jobs in the month, with the unemployment rate steady at 5 percent.
“Behind the enormous distortions caused by the hurricanes, the underlying state of the labor market has continued to improve,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients.
Shepherdson said the jobless claims average over the past four weeks was 305,000 excluding hurricane-related filings, compared with a 317,000 average before the storms hit.
