Number of jobless claims in US down by 1,000

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits for the first time fell by 1,000 last week to 209,000, the US Department of Labor noted, Report informs referring to Interfax.

According to revised data, a week earlier this figure was 210,000, and not 217,000, as previously reported.

Analysts on average expected an increase in the number of applications by 1,000 from the previously announced level of the previous week, to 218,000.

The national average of claims over the past four weeks, a less volatile measure, fell to 208,000, down from 208,500 the week before.

The number of Americans still receiving unemployment benefits for the week ended March 2 rose to 1.811 million from a revised 1.794 million the week before.