The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell for a third straight week last week, but still remain too volatile to offer a clear signal on labor market conditions.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's figure was revised to show 2,000 more applications than previously reported.
Last week's drop brought them back to their pre-superstorm Sandy's 360,000-370,000 range. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 380,0000 last week.
"We could reasonably assume there is no underlying deterioration or acceleration in the labor market before the storm," said Pierre Ellis, senior global economist at Decision Economics in New York.
"We should still have a relative poor payroll reading tomorrow, but we should have some confidence that payrolls would bounce back in December."
The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, rose 2,250 to 408,000, reflecting the impact of the late October storm. That was the highest level since October last year. (Read More: Private Sector Employment Rose by 118,000 in November)
Last week's claims data has no bearing on Friday's employment report. Economists estimate the monster storm, which slammed into the densely populated East Coast, could subtract between 25,000 and 75,000 jobs from November's nonfarm payrolls.
