WASHINGTON — Jobless claims fell last week but remained above the key 400,000 threshold for the second straight week, suggesting that improvement in the labor market has stalled.
The number of people filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time fell 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 403,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
This is the first time that claims have been above 400,000 for two weeks since late January. The decline only partially reverses the big jump in claims in the prior week.
Claims in the previous week were revised to an increase of 31,000 to 416,000, compared with the initial estimate of an increase of 27,000 to 412,000.
When the U.S. economy creates lots of new jobs, new applications for unemployment benefits usually drop well below 400,000 for a prolonged period.
Initial claims are well below the 448,000-per-week average in the second half of 2010 but have come to a plateau in recent weeks.
Jim O’Sullivan, economist at MF Global, said this might be due to disruption to auto output from the earthquake in Japan. Economists had been looking for first-time claims to fall below 400,000.
The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, rose by 2,250 to 399,000. This is the highest level since the week ended Feb. 19.
The four-week average smooths out the data to minimize the impact of one-time changes due to weather, strikes or holidays.
Before the recession, the U.S. employed 146.6 million people. As of March, there were 139.9 million workers in the economy.
