Jobless Claims Drop for Week

Initial jobless claims fell by 23,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The decline put claims for the week ended Saturday at 452,000, lower than the 455,000 projected by economists, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, rose to 458,000, from 462,250 the week before.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended Oct. 9 dropped by 9,000 from a week earlier, to 4.44 million, the lowest since June 26.