Fewer Americans asked for unemployment benefits in the week ending Dec. 22 than the week before, underscoring a month-long trend in a job market that has somewhat cooled but remains solid.
An estimated 216,000 Americans filed initial claims for benefits in the past week measured in the seasonally adjusted data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (pdf). That’s 1,000 fewer than the previous week and 19,000 fewer than the week ending Nov. 24.
