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WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid fell to 246,000, as job market kept improving.
In the week ending January 28, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits was 246,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the revised level of the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
The four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility increased 2,250 from the previous week's revised average to 248,000.
Meanwhile, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 21 fell 39,000 from the previous week to 2,064,000.
The U.S. private sector added 246,000 jobs in January, the second highest level in a year, said the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Moody's Analytics, based on a monthly survey on Wednesday.
"The U.S. labor market is hitting on all cylinders and we saw small and midsized businesses perform exceptionally well," said Ahu Yildirmaz, head of the ADP Research Institute.
