Reuters/Jason Reed
Economists forecast that claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in the past week, ticked down to 240,000.
Last week, claims fell by 2,000 to 241,000.
Moreover, the four-week moving average came in at 237,250, a drop of 750 from the prior week's unrevised average of 236,500.
Initial jobless claims are used as a real-time proxy for the pace of layoffs and the overall health of the labor market since people usually file for benefits soon after they lose their jobs.