Jobless Claims Fall by 5,000

Initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The decline to 293,000 new claims was below economists’ forecasts of a gain to 315,000, Bloomberg reported.

The less-volatile four-week moving average fell to 305,500 from 317,500 the previous week.

The number of people continuing to collect benefits fell to 2.473 million for the previous week ended May 5, from 2.551 million a week earlier, Labor reported.