New Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level in Almost Two Years

Initial jobless claims fell last week to the lowest level in almost two years, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The 29,000 decline to 429,000 claims for the week ended Saturday was the lowest since August 2008, and below the 445,000 forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, declined to 455,250, from 467,000 the previous week.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended July 3 fell by 247,000 to 4.68 million.