Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending Dec. 2 totaled a seasonally adjusted 324,000, a decrease of 34,000 claims from the previous week's revised figure of 358,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Dec. 7.
The department's four-week moving average of initial claims increased slightly, however. For the week ending Dec. 2, the average was 328,750, an increase of 3.500 from the previous week's revised average of 325,250.
