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Initial jobless claims fell by 21,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The decline to 454,000 claims for the week ended Saturday was below economists’ forecasts of 460,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, declined to 466,000, from 467,250 the previous week.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended June 26 fell by 224,000 to 4.413 million, the lowest level since November 2008.