US initial jobless claims fell by 20,000 to a total of 211,000, the US Department of Labor reported today. The previous week’s level was revised upward by 1,000.

Economists had forecast 230,000 applications for the latest week, CNN reported. “Initial claims data can be noisy around the holidays, but the low level of initial claims is a reminder that employers are reluctant to let go of workers they’ve struggled to find,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist for Oxford Economics, told CNN.

The claims figures, according to Houten, show that the labor market is still too tight for the Federal Reserve to ease.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims fell by 3,000 in the week ended Dec. 10 to a level of 227,250.