US jobless claims dropped last week to a more normal 370,000 after three weeks of heightened data in the wake of superstorm Sandy, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week to December 1 dropped from 395,000 the previous week and well over 400,000 in the two weeks before that, following the hurricane that bashed the US northeast at the end of October.
The most recent week’s rate was closely in line with the range for 2012, but the four week moving average remained higher at 408,000.
US jobless claims recede from post-Sandy surge
