Jobless Claims Fall for Week, Labor Reports

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he number of workers filing initial unemployment claims fell by 11,000 last week to 273,000, the lowest level in almost five years, the Labor Department said Thursday.

That was below economists’ predictions of a rise to 295,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 284,250, Labor said.

ontinuing jobless claims for the previous week ended Jan. 21 rose to 2.509 million from 2.573 million a week prior to that.