Jobless Claims Stay Around Four-Year Low

NPR | By Mark Memmott

Published April 5, 2012 at 8:40 AM EDT

The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance stayed around a four-year low last week, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

It says there were 357,000 such applications, down 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 363,000.

Claims have been running at the lowest rate since March and April 2008 for several weeks now.

We'll learn much more about the labor market on Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to report on the March unemployment rate and job growth.

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott

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