US jobless claims drift lower as April opens

Columbia: New claims for US jobless benefits drifted downward at the start of April, hitting their lowest level in six weeks, official figures showed Thursday.

For the week ended April 8, new claims for unemployment insurance slipped to 234,000, seasonally adjusted, a drop of just 1,000 from the prior week`s upwardly-revised level, the Labor Department said in its weekly report.

The result was the lowest since February and well below the consensus forecast which expected claims to rebound to 251,000. The less volatile four-week moving average also fell, declining 3,000 to 247,500 claims.

Though there can be large swings from week to week, jobless claims have remained below 300,000 for 110 consecutive weeks, the longest such streak since 1970. The data can be used to gauge the prevalence of layoffs and the general health of labor markets.

Analysts say the current labor market is comparatively tight, with employers likely to forgo layoffs for fear they may not be able to replace the workers they let go.

The unemployment rate fell in March to 4.5 percent, following months of strong job creation, and the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate twice since December, citing improving labor conditions, and to ward off an acceleration of inflation, which has been tame so far.