Initial Jobless Claims Fall for Week

Initial jobless claims dropped by 36,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The decrease to 383,000 was larger than analysts’ median forecast 410,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, decreased to 415,000, from 431,500.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended Jan. 29 fell by 47,000 from a week earlier, to 3.89 million.