WASHINGTON (AP) — Applications for U.S. unemployment benefits dropped last week, evidence that layoffs are declining and that economic momentum may be accelerating.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for jobless aid fell 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000. The less volatile four-week moving average slipped to 293,500. That’s the lowest reading since February 2006, almost two years before the economy spun into the worst downturn since the 1930s.

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