U.S. initial jobless claims fall back below 300,000

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment fell back below the key 300, 000 mark in the second week of February, showing a steadily improving job market, U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

In the week ending Feb. 14, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits declined by 21,000 to 283,000, lower than economists' expectation of 293,000, the department said.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of labor market conditions, dropped 6,500 to 283,250, the lowest level since late October.

The advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending on Feb. 7 stood at 2.43 million, an increase of 58,000 from the previous week's revised level.

The U.S. economy added 257,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent in December as more people returned to the labor force amid strong job gains, the Labor Department said earlier this month. Enditem