A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits pulled back by more than expected in the week ended November 26th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 225,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level of 241,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 235,000 from the 240,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims gave back ground after reaching their highest level in three months.
