Initial Jobless Claims Fall 28,000 to Lowest Level in Over a Year

The country continues to make progress on the employment front: Initial jobless claims plunged 28,000 to 452,000 for the week ending Dec. 19, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. That was considerably better than had been forecast. The consensus of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had been for jobless claims to fall by 10,000 to 470,000. Initial claims haven't been lower since the week of Sept. 6, 2008, when they were 447,000.