Jobless Claims Decline for Week

Initial jobless claims dropped by 16,000 last week, the third decrease in four weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The decrease to 385,000 new claims for the week ended Saturday matched economists’ forecasts, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average of new claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 386,250, from 393,250, Bloomberg said. It was the lowest figure since July 2008.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended March 5 fell by 80,000 from a week earlier, to 3.71 million.