The four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance was down by 3.9 percent in the week ended Feb. 19, while total initial jobless claims fell by 5.3 percent.

In its weekly report released today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the four-week moving average of jobless claims fell to 402,000 in the week ended Feb. 19, down 16,500 from the previous week's revised number.

The four-week average smoothes the volatility of the weekly number of total reported claims. Total initial claims for the week ended Feb. 19 fell by 22,000 to 391,000 from the previous week's revised number.