Weekly jobless claims drop 15,000 to 372,000

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)
The number of Americans who filed requests for jobless benefits fell by 15,000 last week to 372,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 387,000 from 381,000.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had projected claims would drop to a seasonally adjusted 373,000 in the week ended Dec. 31.
The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, declined by 3,250 to 373,250, the lowest level since June 2008.
Also, the Labor Department said continuing claims decreased by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.6 million in the week ended Dec. 24.
Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.
About 7.22 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week ended Dec. 17, down 8,311 from the prior week.
Total claims are reported with a two-week lag