By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. jobless claim applications fell to their lowest level in two months last week as layoffs remain low despite mounting evidence of a softening labor market.

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The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the week ending Sept. 20 fell by 14,000 to 218,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast 235,000 new applications.

The four-week average of claims, which softens some of the weekly volatility, declined by 2,750 to 237,500.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Sept. 13 inched down by 2,000 to 1.93 million.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered representative of layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically low range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.