Initial Jobless Claims Fall 26,000

The U.S. Labor Department revealed Thursday that initial jobless claims came in at 550,000 for the week ended September 5. This was down 26,000 from the previous week's revised total of 576,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in at around 560,000.

Continuing claims, which measures the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment help, fell 159,000 to 6.088 million.