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A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended November 30th.
The report said initial jobless claims slipped to 203,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 213,000. The drop came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 215,000.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 217,750, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 219,750.
