WASHINGTON - Initial jobless claims fell 9,000 to 423,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Sept. 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Continuing claims fell to 3.727 million for the week ending Sept. 10.
Initial claims have now been above 400,000 since April except for a one-week drop to 399,000 in August.
Economists expected 420,000 initial claims and 3.730 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Initial claims for the week ending Sept. 10 were revised to 432,000. Continuing claims for the September 3 week were revised to 3.755 million.
IHS Global Insight economists said before the report that it would be "especially important because it is the first in some time in which there are not special factors." A Labor Department official confirmed the lack of special factors. In response to a specific question from the department, no states said they had seen any increase in claims related to the recent hurricane and tropical storm.
The four-week moving average for initial claims was 421,000, barely higher than the revised 420,500 for the previous week. The four-week average for continuing claims was 3.742 million, down from the preceding week's 3.749 million. In actual unadjusted numbers, 10 states reported more claims and 43 reported fewer.
