First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended August 10th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday, with jobless claims falling to their lowest level in almost six years. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 320,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 335,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 330,000 from the 333,000 originally reported for the previous week. With the bigger than expected decrease, initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 316,000 in the week ended October 6, 2007. Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at the Lindsey Group, said, "The continued reduction in the pace of firing's to the slowest since the Fall of 2007 should point the Fed further into the camp of taper sooner rather than later." The Labor Department also said its less volatile four-week moving average edged down to 332,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised average of 336,000. Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell to 2.969 million in the week ended August 3rd from the preceding week's revised level of 3.023 million. The four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped to 2,986,500, a decrease of 38,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,025,000. Earlier this month, the Labor Department released a separate report showing that employment in the U.S. increased by less than expected in the month of July. The report said non-farm payroll employment increased by 162,000 jobs in July following a downwardly revised increase of 188,000 jobs in June. Economists had expected employment to increase by about 175,000 jobs compared to the addition of 195,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month. Despite the weaker than expected job growth, the unemployment rate dipped to 7.4 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June. The unemployment rate had been expected to edge down to 7.5 percent. With the bigger than expected decrease, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since hitting 7.3 percent in December of 2008.