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U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Dip To 219,000
(RTTNews) - A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday unexpectedly showing a modest decrease by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended March 29th.
The report said initial jobless claims dipped to 219,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 225,000.
Economists had expected initial jobless claims to inch up to 225,000 from the 224,000 originally reported for the previous month.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also edged down to 223,000, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 224,250.
Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, climbed by 56,000 to 1.903 million in the week ended March 22nd.
With the increase, continuing claims reached their highest level since hitting 1.970 million in the week ended November 13, 2021.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also rose to 1,870,500, an increase of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 1,867,750.
On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched report on employment in the month of March.
Economists currently expect employment to increase by 140,000 jobs in March after climbing by 151,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 4.1 percent.
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