Fewer US workers applied for state unemployment benefits last week, the government said today in a report showing a labour market on the mend as the economy recovers.
The labour department said the number of initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 371,000 for the week ended March 16th, exceeding Wall Street's expectations that first-time claims would slip down to 374,000.
The four-week moving average, considered a more reliable measure of employment conditions because it irons out weekly fluctuations, edged up to 379,000 from 376,500, but remained under the key 400,000 level that economists consider recessionary.
The number of workers remaining on state jobless aid increased to 3.465 million from 3.454 million for the week ended March 9th, the most recent week the data were available.
But still, these so-called continued claims were substantially lower than levels seen after the September 11th attacks, when the US economy hemorrhaged jobs