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A day ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a modest decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended January 2nd.
The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 787,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 790,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 800,000 from the 787,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also fell to 818,750, a decrease of 18,750 from the previous week's revised average of 837,500.
