"Hanging around the 800k+ level is still not a good place to be, especially going into the winter."
The latest weekly jobless data indicate companies are "attempting to retain their workers in a tight labor market."
“The level of claims is consistent with ongoing improvement in U.S. labor markets," an economist says of the data for the week ended Dec. 31.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 13,000 but the data is “consistent with a still-strong trend in employment growth."
