Seasonally adjusted initial claims for U.S. unemployment benefits for the week ended Oct. 5 fell more than expected to 210,000, from the previous week's upwardly revised figure of 220,000, data from the U.S. Labor Department showed.
The consensus estimate of economists polled by Econoday was 219,000.
The four-week moving average 213,750, up from the prior week's upwardly revised reading of 212,750.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate, which measures the proportion of the labor force receiving unemployment benefits, rose 0.1 percentage point to 1.2% in the week ended Sept. 28. Insured unemployment totaled 1,684,000, up from the previous week's revised figure of 1,655,000.
