U.S. initial jobless claims fall 29,000 to 469,000
Published: March 4, 2010
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MarketWatch.com reported March 4 that the number of people filing for initial unemployment benefits declined by 29,000 in the week ending Feb. 27 to a seasonally adjusted 469,000, according to the Labor Department. Initial claims had risen sharply the previous two weeks, in part because of administrative backlogs, extreme weather and the holiday. The four-week average of initial claims - a better gauge of the trend than the volatile weekly number - fell by 3,500 to 470,750. The number of people receiving regular state jobless benefits declined by 134,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.5 million. The total number of people receiving benefits of any kind rose by 145,000 to 11.5 million, not seasonally adjusted.
