Some 787,000 people applied for first-time unemployment benefits the week ending December 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's a drop of 19,000 from the week before. Another 308,000 people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal program for self-employed and gig workers. 'While the decline in total initial claims is movement in the right direction, they have not fallen below one million since this crisis began,' AnnElizabeth Konkel, economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, said in a note. Nine months after the pandemic began, employers continue to cut jobs as coronavirus infections continue to rise, keeping many people at home and forcing state and local governments to re-impose social distancing restrictions on businesses. While new jobless claims last week were at a four-week low, the count over the Christmas holidays is still nearly four times higher than before the coronavirus struck. Economists expect the number of claims to rise again now that jobless benefits have been extended. 'We think that holiday noise and uncertainty about extensions of benefits may have held down claims last week, and the risk is for a rise in claims in the weeks ahead now that emergency programs have been extended and an additional $300 in weekly benefits is being provided,' economists at Oxford Economics said in a note. President Donald Trump this week signed a $900 billion spending package that includes an extension of jobless aid for another 10 weeks and increases unemployment benefits by an additional $300 a week. Some 19.5 million Americans were receiving some form of unemployment assistance as of mid-December. - CBS NEWS