New Jobless Claims Decline for First Time in a Month

Initial jobless claims fell by 31,000 last week, the first decline in a month, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The decline to 473,000 for the week ended Saturday was below economists’ forecasts of 490,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, increased to 486,750, from 483,500 the prior week

Continuing claims for the previous week ended Aug. 14 fell by 62,000 to 4.46 million, from 4.52 million a week earlier.