In spite of signs of slower growth in the economy, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits decreased last week.
According to the Labor Department, initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000.
In the report, which was released Thursday, the prior week's number was revised to show 3,000 more applications than previously reported.
Forecasters were looking for something about 351,000 new claims last week.
An analyst with the Labor Department said he saw nothing uncommon in the data and no states had estimated their claims.
This report lends itself to contradiction with several weeks of signals that economic activity has weakened over the last couple of months – the “spring swoon,” like economists have named this phenomenon which also happened in the last two years.
According to FOX News, the four-week moving average for new claims, a less volatile measure of labor market trends, fell 4,500 to 357,500.
That could relieve the mounting concerns of a worsening in labor market conditions after nonfarm payrolls posted their smallest increase in nine months in March. But, claims around this time of the year are difficult to adjust for seasonal swings, so analysts will be cautious about extrapolating too much from today's data.
Analysts forecast the government next week will report that employers hired 145,000 people in April. Employers added 88,000 workers to their payrolls last month after a sturdy 268,000 increase in February.
Data for January and February suggested that growth accelerated in the first quarter after activity almost stalled in the final three months of 2012.
But in a replay of the prior two years, the economy appeared to have hit a speed bump at the end of the quarter, with data ranging from employment to retail sales and manufacturing weakening significantly in March.
The slowdown has been largely blamed on belt-tightening in Washington as the government tries to slash its bloated budget deficit.
