Jobless claims for unemployment insurance fell by 16,000 in the week ending March 12, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.
Some 385,000 initial claims were filed, near the consensus forecast. During the week, the four-week rolling average of initial claims fell by 7,000 to 386,250.
The unemployment rate in February fell from 9 percent to 8.9 percent.
The Labor Department said the biggest increases in first-time jobless benefits claims for the week ending March 5 were reported by New York with 17,926 additional claims, California, which added 13,388, and Illinois, which added 4,514.
For the week ending March 5, the biggest decreases were reported by Massachusetts with a decline of 2,482, Oregon with a decline of 1,680 and Rhode Island where initial claims fell by 1,120.
Source: UPI
Jobless Claims Drop by 16,000 in Past Week
Mar 17, 2011, 07:42