While one week does not a trend make, the U.S. jobs market got some good news Thursday morning in the form of fewer filings for unemployment insurance.

The Labor Department said first-time claims for jobless benefits fell by 27,000 last week, to 451,000, sharply higher than the 2,000 or so that economists had been projecting.

Claims from the prior week were revised a bit higher, to 478,000 from 472,000.

Meanwhile, continuing claims – which are those taken by workers for more than a week – eased by 2,000 to 4.478 million, while the four-week moving average, which economists like because it smoothes out gyrations from the weekly report, dropped by 9,250 to 477,750.

Labor said the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Aug. 28 were in New York, Florida, Nevada, Oregon and Texas, while the largest decreases were in California, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Maryland.

Last week, the government said the unemployment rate had risen to 9.6%, while nonfarm payrolls contracted by less than expected. 

Stock futures have rallied on the news Thursday, and Treasury yields have crept higher.