Weekly US jobless claims down 12,000

WASHINGTON, (AFP) - US jobless claims fell by 12,000 last week, according to government data released on Thursday - figures that were better than expected, but which were affected by the Christmas holiday.

Seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending December 22 dropped to 350,000 from the previous week's revised 362,000, the Labour Department said.

The four-week moving average was 356,750, a decrease of 11,250 from the prior week's revised average of 368,000.

This week's results were better than expected; some analysts had expected claims to go up.