With the monthly jobs report looming, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a much bigger than expected drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended April 1st.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 234,000, a decrease of 25,000 from the previous week's revised level of 259,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 250,000 from the 258,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average dipped to 250,000, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 254,500.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also dropped by 24,000 to 2.028 million in the week ended March 25th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims slid to 2,023,000, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 2,030,750.
With the decline, the four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped to its lowest level since June of 2000.
Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its report on employment situation in the month of March.
The report is expected to show an increase of about 180,000 jobs in March, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.7 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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