Jobless Claims Fall 58,000 for Week

Initial jobless claims fell by 58,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Claims for the week ended Saturday dropped to 346,000 from a three-month high 404,000, Labor said.

Economists had forecast claims would fall to 395,000, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 380,500, from 390,500.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits rose by 91,000, to 3.202 million for the previous week ended June 28.