Based on the most recent numbers, it might be OK to spend a little more on your last-minute holiday shopping.

Applications for unemployment benefits fell 3,000 to 420,000 for the week ending Dec. 18, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Separately, U.S. Commerce Department statistics showed that spending rose 0.4 percent in November, the fifth straight month of growth.

Both numbers indicate economic growth, though the four-week moving average for unemployment claims rose by 2,500 from Dec. 11 to Dec. 18.

“It hasn’t been such a bad year for the economy – we think it will grow around 2.5 percent this year and 3.5 percent next year,” said Michael Woolfolk, a senior currency strategist at BNY Mellon in New York, in an interview with Reuters. “Unfortunately, it’s been a jobless recovery.”

Regardless, analysts predict improvement in the fourth quarter. The economy grew at a 2.6 percent annualized pace in the third quarter, according to the Commerce Department, and forecasters expect the gross domestic product to expand at a 3 percent to 3.5 percent pace in the fourth quarter, according to Reuters.

In another report, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final 2010 index of consumer sentiment, measuring confidence among consumers, rose to 74.5 in December, a six-month high.