U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Pull Back To 283,000

(RTTNews) - After reporting increases in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the two previous weeks, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims pulled back by more than expected in the week ended February 14th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 283,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 304,000.

Economists had been expecting initial jobless claims to show a somewhat more modest decrease to a level of 290,000.

The Labor Department also said the less volatile four-week moving average slid to 283,250, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 289,750.

With the drop, the four-week moving average fell to its lowest level since hitting 281,250 in the week ended October 25th.

On the other hand, the report said continuing claims rose to 2.425 million in the week ended February 7th from the preceding week's revised level of 2.367 million.

Continuing claims are an indicator of the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance from the government.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims dipped to 2,398,000, a decrease of 9,500 from the previous week's revised average of 2,407,500.