Filings for unemployment benefits likely continued their gradual decline last week amid a hot labor market.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal estimate that weekly jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 260,000 in the week ended Nov. 20 from 268,000 the prior week. That would bring the four-week moving average for initial claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, to the lowest level since the Covid-19 crisis began last year.
