Daily Archives: December 6, 2012

Jobless Claims Fall To Pre-Hurricane Levels

New filings for jobless benefits fell again last week, offering another statistical talking point to argue that the dramatic surge in new claims for the week through November 11 was a temporary effect from Hurricane Sandy. Since then, claims have dropped for three consecutive weeks. The overall decline in the last three reports is substantial, pushing last week’s claims data down to the range that prevailed before the storm hit, albeit on the high side of the pre-storm range. But for now, there’s quite a bit more confidence for asserting that the claims numbers again suggest that slow growth for the labor market remains a reasonable outlook.

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