Initial jobless claims fall to lowest level since January

More progress for the U.S. labor market: initial jobless claims fell 47,000 to 522,000 – the metric's lowest level since January, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday.

What's more, continuing claims also fell 642,000 to 6.273 million from last week's revised record of 6.915 million. However, labor statisticians caution that the large 642,000 drop in continuing claims may be due to idiosyncratic events, and not indicative of a trend. The 4-week continuing claims average fell 110,250 to 6.667 million.