8:30am 12/06/01 Jobless claims fall in latest week
By Rachel Koning
First-time requests for state unemployment benefits fell 18,000 in the latest week to 475,000, reclaiming a portion of the huge, upwardly adjusted 60,000 gain a week earlier. A Labor official said the numbers would likely continue to be volatile through the holiday season, with shortened workweeks and other factors impacting the statistics. The four-week moving average, considered a better gauge of the labor market because it irons out some of the seasonal fluctuations, rose 5,750 to 460,750. The number of Americans who continue to receive jobless benefits each week tumbled by 349,000 to 3.64 million in the latest period, more than reclaiming a large rise from the week earlier. A drop of this magnitude in one week hadn't been seen since January 1983, a Labor official confirmed. But the labor pool is much larger now than in the early 1980s, making a direct comparison more difficult. The insured unemployment rate fell back to 2.8 percent from the 3.1 percent seen a week earlier.