Initial Jobless Claims Drop 2K

A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a slight drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended October 27th.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 214,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 216,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.