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First-time claims for unemployment insurance edged down by 2,000 for the week ended February 25, the ""Labor Department"":http://www.dol.gov/ reported Thursday.
[IMAGE]Data for the previous week were revised upward, turning a flat report into an increase in initial claims.
The revision means claims rose and did not decline during the week used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its month survey for the unemployment rate.
Continuing claims, reported on a one-week lag, fell 2,000 to 3,402,000 as the numbers for the previous week were also revised upward.
The four-week moving average for initial claims,
[COLUMN_BREAK]smoothing the volatile weekly numbers, dropped to 354,000 from 359,500 while the average for continuing claims dropped to 3,444,000 from 3,456,250.
The four-week average for first time claims fell to its lowest level since March 2008 while the average for continuing claims dropped to its lowest level since September 2008.
The total number of people collecting benefits under emergency programs rose slightly, but the number collecting under extended programs dropped.
Against recent data showing just under 13 million people are officially counted as unemployed, the total of people collecting under all programs is just under 7.5 million.
Claims have been on a steadily declining trend since September indicating the pace of layoffs has clearly slowed. Continuing claims remained on their two-year long declining trend.
Taken together the data indicate that the labor market is steadily, if slowly, improving but that a lot of slack still exists.
According to the Labor Department detail, also reported on a one-week lag, the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending February 18 were in Iowa (+438), North Carolina (+285), New Mexico (+81), Missouri (+56), and Washington (+21), while the largest decreases were in Florida (-2,121), Illinois (-1,772), Massachusetts (-1,537), California (-1,452), and Michigan (-1,280).
