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"The unemployment claims data continue to signal that the pace of improvement in the labor market may be gaining momentum"
- John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics
More Americans applied for jobless benefits during the week ended December 24 than for the previous period. New applications for unemployment benefits rose for the first time in a month to 381 thousand in the week ended December 24, said the Department of Labor on Thursday. Economists expected the reading to increase to 372 thousand.
"The unemployment claims data continue to signal that the pace of improvement in the labor market may be gaining momentum," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.
"We've seen a pretty strong trend in claims recently. This finally shows they're correcting to a sustainable downtrend," said Gennadiy Goldberg, interest-rate strategist at 4CAST in New York.