Weekly Jobless Claims Fall, Continuing Applications Rise

01:36 PM EST, 11/26/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Weekly applications for unemployment insurance dropped, while continuing claims moved higher, US government data showed Wednesday.

For the week through Nov. 22, the seasonally adjusted number of initial claims decreased by 6,000 to 216,000, the Department of Labor said. The consensus was for a 225,000 print in a Bloomberg poll. The previous week's reading was revised up by 2,000 to 222,000.

The four-week moving average totaled 223,750, dropping by 1,000 from the prior week's average, which was revised upward by 500. Unadjusted claims rose by 25,712 on a weekly basis to 243,992.

Seasonally adjusted continuing claims came in at 1.96 million for the week ended Nov. 15, roughly in line with Wall Street's views. Continuing claims increased by 7,000 from the previous week's downwardly revised level. The four-week moving average rose by 750 to 1.96 million from the prior week's average, which was revised down by 5,250, according to the DOL.

Claims data continue to point to limited job terminations even as headlines indicate that layoff intentions have risen, Jefferies Chief US Economist Thomas Simons said in a note e-mailed to MT Newswires.

"Private sector businesses have done well to preserve margin by reducing labor costs via attrition, shorter hours and part-time employment to mitigate slack, rather than mass layoffs," Simons wrote.

However, recent job cut announcements by companies such as Amazon (AMZN) and Verizon (VZ) suggest that "the phenomenon of labor market hoarding that prevailed in 2022 and 2023 is definitively over."

The previous jobless claims report was "muddied by the dump" of all of the delayed data from a 43-day-long record US federal government shutdown that ended earlier this month, according to Jefferies.

"Looking at the headline numbers today, no one would suspect that there was a (more-than-six-week) government shutdown," Simons said. "We expect that when the (nonfarm payrolls) data is released for October and November, we will see two-month combined job growth that is in-line with the (119,000) print in September."

Recent data and downside risks to the labor market suggest that a quarter-percentage-point reduction in the Federal Reserve's benchmark lending rate "remains appropriate" for the December meeting, Simons said.

"We are optimistic about growth in 2026," Simons wrote. "However, we are also concerned about the risk that businesses engage in more layoffs in the near-term due to negative sentiment and a lack of data showing that the economy is still resilient."

Price: 229.85, Change: +0.18, Percent Change: +0.08

MT Newswires does not provide investment advice. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.