Initial jobless claims dropped below 300,000 for the first time since the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns were commonplace, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The claims, which analysts often tie to layoffs, decreased to 293,000 last week, as compared with 329,000 a week earlier, the agency said. The four-week moving average for unemployment claims fell to 334,250—the lowest since March 2020. Overall, approximately 3.6 million people were getting some sort of jobless benefits during the last week of September. Before the pandemic, weekly unemployment claims usually lingered at around 200,000 and 250,000. The federal government reported last Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by only 194,000 jobs in September, the fewest in nine months. The cooling in employment growth is mostly due to a dearth of workers as well as skills mismatch, with government data on Tuesday showing there were 10.4 million job …