Initial jobless claims fall more than expected

Reuters/Jason ReedMervin Sealy from Hickory, North Carolina, takes part in a protest rally outside the Capitol Building in Washington, October 5, 2011. Demonstrators were demanding that Congress create jobs, not make budget cuts during the protest.Initial jobless claims fell more than expected.

Claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time, dropped by 8,000 to 237,000, according to the Labor Department.

Economists forecast that claims fell to 241,000, from the prior week's unrevised reading of 245,000.

Initial jobless claims are used as a real-time proxy for the pace of layoffs since people usually file for benefits soon after they lose their jobs.

The four-week moving average was 243,000, an uptick of 1,000 from the prior week's unrevised 242,000.

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