WASHINGTON -- Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell 0.9 percent in January, the worst showing in three months, as demand for commercial aircraft fell sharply, the government reported yesterday.

The Commerce Department said that demand for durable goods, items expected to last three or more years, dropped by $1.7 billion last month to a seasonally adjusted $200.4 billion. The weakness was led by a 27.1 percent plunge in orders for commercial aircraft.

The overall decline was larger than expected, but it followed two months of strong gains. Orders rose 1.4 percent in December after an even larger 2 percent rise in November. They fell by 1 percent in October.

Excluding transportation, durable goods orders rose by 0.8 percent last month following a 2.8 percent surge in December.

In a second report, the Labor Department said the number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose by 9,000 to 312,000. The slight increase had been expected given that weekly claims had been declining in recent weeks. The four-week moving average of claims, designed to smooth out week-to-week volatility, dropped by 3,250 to a four-year low of 308,750.

Economists said the level of claims indicated that the job market was continuing to gain strength after a prolonged stretch of weakness.

Some cooling off in factory orders in January had been expected, given that the sector is extremely volatile and there had been strong gains in the previous two months.