In the week ending September 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply by 36,000 to 280,000 claims, the second-lowest level of the recovery and lower than the consensus range of about 290,000 to 325,000. The four-week moving average, a less volatile gauge of underlying labor market conditions, declined to 300,000—among the lowest levels of the recovery—from the previous week's average of just over 304,000.
