First-Time Unemployment Claims Down 8K

In the week ending Jan. 23, 470,000 Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance coverage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

That's a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 456,250, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week.

The insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending Jan. 16, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.