Jobless Claims Off 2,000

Washington, DC, July 27, 2007--Applications for initial jobless claims fell by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 301,000 for the week ended July 21, falling for three consecutive weeks, according to the Labor Department.

The four-week moving average of new claims -- which smoothes out distortions caused by one-time events such as holidays and weather -- fell by 4,000 to stand at 308,500. This is the lowest reading since early June.

Economists had generally been expecting claims to increase to about 310,000.

Claims in the previous week were revised to a decrease of 6,000, to 303,000, compared with the initial estimate of a fall of 8,000 to 301,000.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 in the week ended July 14 to a seasonally adjusted 2.55 million.