Initial jobless claims fell 8,000 to 287,000 in the week ended Sept. 27, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Claims for the week ended Sept. 20 were revised to 295,000 from the initially reported 293,000.
Continuing jobless claims were 2.398 million in the week ended Sept. 20, down from the revised 2.443 million the week before, initially reported as 2.439 million.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 298,000 initial claims.
The four-week average of initial claims was down 4,250 in the week ended Sept. 27 to 294,750.
