There were 206,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending December 11, data published by the US Department of Labor (DoL) revealed on Thursday. This reading followed last week's print of 188K (revised up from 184K), which was the lowest reading since 1969, and came in a tad above market expectations for 200K. Continued jobless claims fell to 1.845M in the week ending December 4, the data showed, below expectations for a drop to 1.936M from 1.999M the week prior.