US jobless claims fell last week

U.S. jobless claims fell more than expected during the week ended Dec. 4, providing some relief to the labor market that saw a rise in jobless rate in the week before, the Labor Department said.

Seasonally adjusted initial claims fell by 17,000 to 421,000. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting a fall to 425,000.

Over 4 million people continued to collect unemployment insurance during the week ended Nov. 27 when the unemployment rate was 3.2 percent, a marginal drop from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.4 percent.

Wisconsin, Iowa and Idaho saw the largest increases in initial claims for the week ended Nov. 27, while Texas reported the largest decrease.

California, which had seen the largest increase in the preceding week, reported the second largest fall during the week, followed by Florida.