US initial jobless claims slide to 432,000

The count of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 22,000 to 4,32,000 people for the week ended December 26, as the nation's battered labor market is slowly stabilising.

In the previous week, the same statistics stood at 4,54,000, according to the data of US Labor Department.

"The four-week moving average was 4,60,250, a decrease of 5,500 from the previous week's revised average of 4,65,750," the Labor Department said in a statement today.

After being rattled by one of the worst ever financial meltdown, the employment market is on the recovery path especially with slowing pace of job losses.

Meanwhile, the number of people receiving jobless benefits dropped to 49,81,000 for the week ended December 19.

The count of such Americans has come down by 57,000 from the earlier week's level of 50,38,000.

"The four-week moving average was 51,01,000, a decrease of 1,22,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 52,23,250," the statement added.

Last month, the national unemployment rate slipped to ten per cent from a 26-year-high of 10 per cent in October.