In the week ending March 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 205,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 213,000. The 4-week moving average was 210,750, a decrease of 750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 500 from 212,000 to 211,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2 percent for the week ending March 7, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 7 was 1,857,000, an increase ... (full story)

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining in the same range of recent years despite a broadly tepid labor market. The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending March 14 fell by 8,000 from the previous week to 205,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 215,000 new filings analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting. Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market. While weekly layoffs have remained in a healthy range mostly between ... (full story)