Initial Jobless Claims Up But U.S. Economy Ends 2014 On High Note

Initial jobless claims were up 17,000 for the week ending December 27, according to the Department of Labor. That number is slightly higher than expected but has still dropped sharply since the beginning of the year. Along with strong growth figures, that seems to indicate an upswing for the U.S. economy heading into 2015.

The seasonally adjusted number of applications for unemployment benefits was 298,000, up from 281,000 the previous week.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor

The “initial claims” number counts new applications and so is considered a gauge of how many workers are being laid off. The number has plummeted over the past year after opening January 2014 at 333,000 according to Business Insider .

The four-week moving average, a more stable look at the state of unemployment claims, rose 250 to 290,750. That number began 2014 at around 350,000 and has dropped about 17.5% over the last twelve months.

While initial jobless claims were up last week, fewer people are receiving unemployment benefits. That number fell 53,000 to 2.35 million. According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate stands at 1.8% for those eligible to receive benefits.

The report comes out as the U.S. economy ends a strong 2014, with unemployment down to 5.8%, the lowest it’s been since 2008, and third-quarter GDP growth recently revised up to a stellar 5%. That GDP number came after a similarly strong second quarter, leading to the fastest sustained growth rate in over a decade.

And as Bloomberg notes, payroll growth has been steady at an average of about 241,000 this year with a total of 2.7 million new jobs through November (when 321,000 new jobs were added to the economy). The last time hiring was at that level was 1999.

And part of the reason for the slightly-higher-than-expected uptick in initial jobless claims last week could have been due to the Christmas holiday. Jefferies LLC economist Thomas Simons told Bloomberg that “[w]e tend to have some distortions because of the holidays.”

Initial Jobless Claims Up But U.S. Economy Ends 2014 On High Note