Americans are finding jobs, the government says, reporting a big drop in unemployment claims last week. The total was 283,000 — an initial, seasonally adjusted count subject to revision later — that was a drop of 21,000 from the previous week’s unrevised total of 304,000.
The government said the four-week moving average was 283,250, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 289,750.
There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8% for the week ending Feb. 7, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.