US weekly jobless claims fall below 1 million for first time in 5 months

The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 963,000 last week, the first time it has dipped below one million since mid-March, the country's labor department said.

In the week ending August 8, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped by 228,000 from an upwardly revised 1,191,000 in the prior week, the department said in a report on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The report also showed that the four-week moving average, a method to iron out data volatility, decreased by 86,250 to 1.25 million.