Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The nation's new jobless claims exceeded expectations with fewer than 200,000 reported for the week ending on Saturday, marking the third straight week that new jobless claims fell.
The number of new jobless claims fell by about 16,000 and posted a seasonally adjusted 199,000, the Labor Department announced on Wednesday.
The term "seasonally adjusted" refers to a statistical method in which seasonal effects, such as weather and holidays, are factored to better show the direction in which the nation's job market is moving.
Last week's decline was the third straight week and the seventh of the past eight in which seasonally adjusted new jobless claims declined across the country, MarketWatch reported.
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