New unemployment claims came in lower than expected in the week ended February 18th, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department.
The report puts the seasonally adjusted level of new claims for unemployment at 351,000 for the week, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure.
Although the previous week's figure was revised up from the 348,000 initially reported, the weekly claims numbers remain the lowest since early March 2008.
Most economists had forecast an uptick in the low level of new jobless claims, predicting a level of 355,000.
"Last week's decline in claims established a new cycle low, boosting expectations for further labor market improvement," said Lindsey Piegza, an economist at FTN Financial. "This week's report - holding in to that cycle low -- reaffirms sustainable improvement in employment."
She added, "While volatility in weekly claims is generally quite high, back-to-back reports of the lowest level of claims in over three years certainly raises the bar for the February employment report."
Labor Department officials said that seasonal factors had predicted a 5.5 percent decline in the level of new claims for the week. What was actually reported was a 5.4 percent decline, leaving the seasonally adjusted figures essentially unchanged.
However, the officials cautioned that California and Virginia had provided estimates of their new jobless claims levels, while Hawaii's figures had been estimated by the Department - not uncommon during weeks in which a federal holiday occurs.
The level of initial unemployment claims has come in below 400,000, a level that many economists believe is key to reducing the overall unemployment rate, for 11 of the last 12 weeks.
The four-week moving average of initial unemployment claims, a figure that reduces some of the week-to-week volatility, came in at 359,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 366,000.
The last time the average of initial claims was lower was in late March 2008, when the Labor Department recorded an average of 355,500.
The total number of people claiming unemployment insurance, a figure known as continuing claims, came in at 3.392 million for the week ended February 11th, a drop of 52,000 from the previous week's revised level of 3.444 million.
That marks the lowest level of continuing claims since early August 2008.
Most economists had expected a somewhat higher level of continuing claims, predicting the figure would come in at 3.45 million.
The four-week moving average of continuing unemployment claims fell by 43,750 to 3,453,250 from the previous week's revised average of 3.497 million.
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