According to the latest figures released, the total number of new applications for U. S. unemployment benefits has fallen for the third consecutive week.

The data showed that the new applications recorded a fall of 25,000 to 370,000 during the week till 1, December, 2012, according to the Labor Department. The data also showed that the claims for two weeks ago were revised upwards to 395,000 from an initial recording of 393,000 in the country.

The jobless claims data, which is released a day before the government set to announce employment figures for November, helped the stock markets shed some losses. It is believed that about 80,000 net jobs were added during the month of November compared to 171,000 in October, according to a survey conducted by MarketWatch.

Economists in the US say that the super-storm Sandy, which ravaged the US east coast in October, is the reason for a fall in the number of people applying for job benefits. Applications for new jobless benefits had reached its highest in 18-month the middle of November to 451,000 before it started falling again. New claims are an indicator of measuring if there is a rise of fall in layoffs.