U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Fall To 328,000

ByJohn S. McClenahen In another sign that the U.S. labor market is improving, initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 328,000 for the week ending April 3, some 14,000 fewer than the previous week's figure of 342,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported April 8. The decline way exceeded economists expectations; they generally had forecast a decline of only 2,000 claims to 240,000. The Labor Department's closely watched four-week moving average of jobless claims, which smoothes out week-to-week changes, also fell last week. It was down by 3,250 claims to 336,750. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits declined during the week ending March 27, the most recent period for which the Labor department has data. The figure was 3.01 million, down from the previous weeks 3.05 million.