Washington, DC, June 23--First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 314,000 the week ending June 18, the Labor Department said Thursday.
It was the lowest since April 16. Economists were expecting claims to stay flat at 330,000.
Continuing jobless claims fell 38,000 to 2.60 million, while the 4-week average of jobless claims fell 2,500 to 333,000.
The four-week average smoothes out distortions caused by one-time events, such as weather, holidays and strikes.
Initial claims in the week ending June 11 were revised to 334,000.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.0% for the week ending June 11, an decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.1%.
