The number of jobless Americans filing for unemployment insurance fell last week to the lowest level in nearly two months, a government report released today showed.
 
There were 451,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Sept. 4, down 27,000 from an upwardly revised 478,000 in the previous week, according to a weekly report from the Labor Department.
 
That was the lowest weekly jobless claims figure since the 427,000 claims reported in the week ended July 10. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast new jobless claims to edge down to 470,000.
 
“What this means for people who are unemployed and looking for work is that things are less bad than they were, and we’re taking steps toward an environment where we can have job growth, but we’re not there yet,” Tim Quinlan, economic analyst at Wells Fargo, told CNNMoney.com.
 
The four-week moving average of initial claims, calculated to smooth out volatility, was 477,750, down 9,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 487,000.
 
Though the slide to 451,000 new claims is a welcome improvement from the 650,000-claim highs seen during the worst part of the recession, the current level still isn’t as low as it should be, said Quinlan.
 
“Most economists agree that to be consistent with payroll growth we should be between 400,000 and 450,000,” he said. “So is 451,000 good? No, but it’s a heck of a lot better than where we’ve been.”