US jobless claims tumble 25,000 in a week

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The queue of newly jobless Americans shrank last week, providing a dose of good news to the labor market.
The number of new claims for unemployment benefits tumbled 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 329,000 in the week to October 16, reversing a gain of 16,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday.
But job claims data are often volatile in holiday periods despite attempts to adjust for the change, a Labor Department spokesman said. The period of the survey included Columbus Day on October 11.
A four-week average of new claims, which smoothes out some weekly blips, fell 5,500 to 348,250.
In raw, unadjusted figures, the number of new claims for unemployment benefits slumped 59,661 to 278,662. There were 328,572 new claims in the same period last year.
The number of people filing jobless claims for at least two weeks fell 8,000 to a seasonally adjused 2.80 million in the week ending October 9, the latest date for which those figures are available.