WASHINGTON—The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, indicating steady improvement in the job market.

Initial claims for jobless benefits, a measure of layoffs, decreased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 336,000 in the week ended Feb. 15. That was slightly more than the 335,000 forecast by economists but continued the downward trend of the past few weeks and was lower than the 344,000 average for all of last year.

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