New Jobless Claims Decline for Week

Initial jobless claims fell by 11,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The decrease to 457,000 claims for the week ended Saturday exceeded economists’ forecasts of 460,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 452,500, the lowest since May 8, from 457,000 the previous week.

Continuing claims for the previous week ended July 17 fell to 4.565 million from 4.484 million.