The number of American workers filing for unemployment fell last week, dropping more sharply than economists expected, though experts say there remains an elevated level of uncertainty around the recovery outlook. First-time filings for unemployment insurance—a proxy for layoffs—came in at 326,000 for the week ending on Oct. 2, the Labor Department said in a statement (pdf). The consensus forecast was for 348,000 claims. “After three straight weekly increases, new jobless claims have finally moved to the downside. The decline of 38,000 to 326,000 in seasonally adjusted new claims leaves them slightly above the pandemic era low one month ago,” Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. The total number of Americans receiving some form of jobless assistance fell by around 855,000 for the week ending Sept. 18, a far more modest number than the 6.2 million the week prior, which was driven by the …