U.S. initial jobless claims fall from 7-month high

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid fell last week from a seven-month high, U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

In the week ending on Jan. 17, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits edged down to 307,000 after hitting a seven-month high of 317,000 in the prior week, the department said.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of labor market conditions, rose by 6,500 to 306,500, taking it above the 300,000 mark for the first time since September.

The advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending on Jan. 10 stood at 2.44 million, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level.

Economists said jobless claims tend to rise at the start of each year as season workers are dismissed following the end of the traditional holiday shopping season stretching from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Other indicators pointed to steady and continued improvement in the labor market. The U.S. economy added 252,000 jobs in December, making 2014 the best year for hiring since 1999, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.6 percent, the lowest level in six and a half years, the Labor Department said earlier this month. Endite