Washington, DC, February 23, 2006--First-time seasonally adjusted claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 20,000 to 278,000 last week, reversing the prior week's gains, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The four-week average of new claims -- which smoothes out distortions created by one-time events such as weather -- fell by 1,500 to 281,750, close to the six-year low of 276,750 seen two weeks ago.
The four-week average is about 40,000 below the trend that prevailed for much of 2005.
