Jobless Claims Dipped Last Week

There were 418,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

That's down 14,000 from the previous week — but still well above the 350,000-or-so mark that's something of a dividing line between a labor market that's in relatively good shape and one that's not doing well.

The report notes one special circumstance: "Minnesota has indicated that approximately 2,500 of their reported initial claims are a result of state employees filing due to the state government shutdown."

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