NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims sank by 25,000 last week, the government reported Thursday, coming in well below economists' forecasts.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits fell to 329,000 last week from a revised 354,000 the prior week, the Labor Department reported. Economists had expected claims to come in at 345,000, according to Briefing.com.

The four-week moving average of initial claims, which smoothes out weekly fluctuations, dropped to 348,250 from 353,750. The number of people who remained on state unemployment rolls slipped to 2.80 million in the week ended Oct. 9, the latest data available, from 2.81 million the prior week.