WASHINGTON - Initial jobless claims dropped by 10,000 to 382,000 for the week ending April 2, the lowest level in five weeks, as the four-week moving average for initial claims declined for the first time in three weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Continuing claims dipped by 9,000 to 3.723 million for the week ending March 26.
Economists expected 385,000 initial claims and 3.7 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Initial claims for the week ending March 26 were revised higher to 392,000 from 388,000 reported last week. The four-week moving average for initial claims, a less volatile figure, slipped to 389,500. The four-week average has held below 400,000 since February 26.
As the federal government braces for a potential shutdown, federal employees who are furloughed would show up in the initial claims data. For the week ending March 26, 1,487 federal employees filed initial jobless claims and 36,787 federal workers received continuing claims for the week ending March 19. An official with the Labor Department stressed it is unclear how the situation will play out, making it difficult to predict how a shutdown could affect initial claims data.
All workers receiving first-time and continuing benefits are paid by the states and would continue to receive benefits in the event of a shutdown. States that are borrowing money from the federal government for their unemployment programs are expected to have enough cash to last a brief federal government shutdown, the Labor official said.
