Jobless claims slide to a nearly 2-month low

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of jobless Americans filing for unemployment insurance fell last week to the lowest level in nearly two months, a government report released Thursday showed.

There were 451,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Sept. 4, down 27,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the previous week, according to a weekly report from the Labor Department.

That was the lowest weekly jobless claims figure since the 427,000 claims reported in the week ended July 10. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast new jobless claims to edge down to 470,000.

"What this means for people who are unemployed and looking for work is that things are less bad than they were and we're taking steps toward an environment where we can have job growth, but we're not there yet," said Tim Quinlan, economic analyst at Wells Fargo.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims, calculated to smooth out volatility, was 477,750, down 9,250 from the previous week's revised average of 487,000.

Not low enough for job growth: While the slide to 451,000 new claims is a welcome improvement from the 650,000 highs seen during the worst part of the recession, the current level still isn't as low as it should be, said Quinlan.

"Most economists agree that to be consistent with payroll growth we should be between 400,000 and 450,000," he said. "So is 451,000 good? No, but it's a heck of a lot better than where we've been."

Going forward, claims could hover at these lower levels for the remainder of the year, but a sharp decline is unlikely until jobs are created and the economy begins to show more convincing signs of life, said Quinlan.

Continuing claims: The number of people continuing to file unemployment claims for a second week or more eased to 4,478,000 during the week ended Aug. 28, the most recent data available. That's down 2,000 from an upwardly revised 4,480,000 the week before.

Economists were expecting continuing claims to dip to 4,445,000 from 4,456,000 the week before.

The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 3,250 to 4,488,000 million from the preceding week's revised 4,491,250.

State-by-state: Jobless claims in two states declined by more than 1,000 in the week ended Aug. 28, which is the most recent state data available. Claims in California dropped the most, by 4,127. The state attributed the drop to fewer layoffs in the construction, trade and manufacturing industries.

Claims jumped by more than 1,000 in three states. Claims in New York rose the most, by 4,891, while claims in Florida were up 1,886 and claims in Nevada rose by 1,052.