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Initial jobless claims fell by 31,000 last week, the first decline in a month, the Labor Department said Thursday.
The decline to 473,000 for the week ended Saturday was below economists’ forecasts of 490,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, increased to 486,750, from 483,500 the prior week
Continuing claims for the previous week ended Aug. 14 fell by 62,000 to 4.46 million, from 4.52 million a week earlier.