In the week ending October 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 287,000, a slight decrease from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 288,000 (up from 287,000). The four-week moving average, a less volatile gauge of underlying labor market conditions, hit a recovery low, declining to nearly 288,000 (from the previous week’s unrevised average of 295 thousand), its lowest level since February 2006 and nearly 17,000 less than the month-ago comparison.
