Jobless Claims Drop; Loans Up Sharply : Statistics: Second-straight drop in the figure is further sign of a strengthening economy. Inventories climb 1.1%.

Suggesting a strengthening economy, the number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell by 9,000 last week to the lowest level in more than nine months, the government said Thursday.

Separately, consumer borrowing rose an unexpected $3.628 billion in August amid slower increases in credit card use and auto loans, the Federal Reserve Board said.

And stocks of unsold goods at the wholesale level posted their biggest jump in nine months in August, the Commerce Department said, despite a strong gain in sales.

Inventories increased 1.1% to a seasonally adjusted $215.6 billion, a second straight rise in the value of goods on wholesalers’ shelves following a 0.6% increase in July.

Department officials said it was the largest monthly rise in inventories since an identical 1.1% gain in November.

The increase in inventories may indicate that wholesalers are hopeful about strong holiday sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas, since sales also picked up strongly in August.

In its jobless claims report, the Labor Department said new applications for unemployment insurance totaled 320,000, the lowest since 317,000 newly laid-off workers filed claims during the week ended last Dec. 26.

It was the second straight decline and the seventh in the last 10 weeks.

Many economists had predicted in advance of the report that claims would be down by just 4,000 and remain in a range consistent with moderate job growth.

In fact, many are forecasting that more than 150,000 jobs were created in September, while the unemployment rate remained at 6.7% for a second month in a row.

New jobs averaged 150,000 a month during the first half of 1993, and the jobless rate has edged down from 7.1% in January.

The Labor Department will release September employment figures today.