Weekly Jobless Claims Fall

Washington, DC, February 22, 2007--First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell last week, as the four-week average of such claims rose to its highest level since early December.

Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims fell by 27,000 to stand at 359,000 in the week ended Feb. 17, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

But the four-week average of new claims -- which smoothes out one-time events such as holidays or weather -- rose by 1,250 to 326,250. It's the highest since the week of Dec. 2.

At the same time, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits in the week ended Feb. 10 fell by 45,000. At 2.5 million, this was the lowest figures seen in two weeks.