A day ahead of the release of the monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than anticipated in the week ended April 29th.
The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 238,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 257,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 247,000.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average edged up to 243,000, an increase of 750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 242,250.
Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 23,000 to 1.964 million in the week ended April 22nd.
With the decrease, continuing claims slid to their lowest level since hitting 1.962 million in the week ended April 15, 2000.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also fell to a twenty-eight year low of 1,989,250 from the previous week's revised average of 2,007,000.
On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for April.
Employment is expected to increase by 180,000 jobs in April after rising by 98,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 4.6 percent from 4.5 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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