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U.S. jobless claims dip
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November 8, 2001: 8:41 a.m. ET
New unemployment-benefit claims fall, but work is still hard to find.
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - New claims for unemployment benefits in the United States fell last week, the government reported Thursday, with the number dipping below economists' expectations, though it was still high and jobs are still hard to find.
The Labor Department reported that new jobless claims fell to 450,000 in the week ended Nov. 2 from a revised 496,000 a week earlier. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 500,000 new claims.
To keep consumers spending despite an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent in October, the Federal Reserve has cut its target for short-term interest rates a record 10 times this year.
The Labor Department said its four-week moving average of new unemployment claims, which smoothes out the fluctuations in the weekly data, also fell last week, to 487,250 from a revised 496,000 the prior week.
Still, employers aren't yet hiring new workers. Continued claims, the number of workers who have been claiming benefits for at least a week, rose to 3.72 million in the week of Oct. 27, the last for which data are available, from a revised 3.69 million the prior week.
U.S. stock futures continued to rise after the news, pointing to a higher open on Wall Street. U.S. Treasury bond prices fell. 
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