Initial jobless claims decline

WASHINGTON – Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply last week and are approaching the level consistent with strong job growth.

There were 359,000 people who filed for jobless benefits for the first time in the week that ended Saturday, down 26,000 from the previous week’s adjusted level, the Labor Department said Thursday.

It was the lowest number of new claims since the week that ended July 21, when 357,000 people filed.

The drop last week was much more than expected. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for 375,000 new claims.

Initial filings of about 350,000 or fewer in a week indicate the economy is poised for stronger hiring that could bring down the unemployment rate. But the weekly figures can vary widely, and several more weeks at that level would be needed to indicate a trend.

The national unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August as the economy has struggled to create new jobs. It was the 43rd straight month the rate was above 8 percent, the longest such stretch since the Labor Department began tracking the figure in 1948.

A quarterly survey of large-company chief executives released Thursday showed more pessimism about the direction of the economy. Only 29 percent of the chief executives said they would add workers in the next six months, down from 36 percent the previous quarter.