U.S. Jobless Claims Total 359,000 In Latest Week

MarketWatch.com
By Jeffry Bartash
March 29, 2012

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The number of Americans who filed requests for jobless benefits fell by 5,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 359,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. The latest data includes the government’s annual seasonal-adjustment revisions extending back five years, which have resulted in a small increase in weekly claims. The number of new applications for benefits last week, for example, was originally reported at 348,000. The revisions now put last week’s level of claims at 364,000, a 4.6% increase. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch projected claims would fall to 345,000 in the week ended March 24, but those estimates did not factor in the revisions. The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, dropped by 3,500 to 365,000, a four-year low. Continuing claims decreased by 41,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.34 million in the week ended March 17, the Labor Department said. About 7.15 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week ended March. 10, down 131,488 from the prior week. Figures for continuing claims and total claims were little changed under the government’s revised formula for calculating the data.

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