Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since 2008

Initial jobless claims dropped by 34,000 last week to the lowest level since July 2008, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

The decline put claims for the week ended Saturday at 407,000, lower than the 435,000 projected by economists, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 436,000, from 443,500 the week before.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended Nov. 13 dropped by 142,000 from a week earlier, to 4.18 million.