Washington, DC, March 30, 2006--First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 to 302,000 in the week ending March 25, the Labor Department said Thursday.
It's down from the prior week's revised 312,000 and is the lowest since Feb. 18. The four-week moving average of new claims fell by 1,500 to 310,750, the department said.
The number of people who continue to collect unemploy-ment benefits rose by 20,000 to 2.483 million in the week ending March 18.
Economists were expecting initial jobless claims to rise to about 305,000. A year ago, initial jobless claims were at 349,000.
The insured unemployment rate held at 1.9%. The number represents the percentage of all covered workers who are receiving benefits.
The four-week average of continuing claims remained at a five-year low. For the week ending March 18, it was 2.472 million. The four-week average was at 2.667 million a year ago.
