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Initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The increase put claims for the week ended Saturday at 439,000, slightly lower than the 441,000 forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 443,000, the lowest since September 2008.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended Nov. 6 dropped by 48,000 from a week earlier, to 4.3 million.