(RTTNews) - Thursday morning, the Department of Labor released its report on initial jobless claims in the week ended August 23rd, showing that jobless claims fell in line with economist estimates compared to an upwardly revised reading for the previous week.

The report showed that jobless claims fell to 425,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 435,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to fall to 425,000 from the 432,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the decrease, jobless claims pulled back further off the six-year high that was set in the week ended August 2nd.

The Labor Department also said that the less volatile four-week moving average fell to 440,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 446,250.

At the same time, the report showed that continuing claims in the week ended August 16th rose to 3.423 million from the preceding week’s revised level of 3.359 million.

The Labor Department is scheduled to release its report on the national employment situation in the month of August next Friday.

Economists currently expect the report to show a decrease of about 70,000 jobs in August following a decrease of 51,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate is expected remain unchanged at 5.7 percent.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Forex, Releases, USA.

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