Weekly jobless claims decline 9,000 to 346,000

Weekly jobless claims decline 9,000 to 346,000

The number of people who applied for regular state unemployment-insurance benefits declined by 9,000 to 346,000 in the week that ended June 22, pointing to a slightly slower pace of layoffs, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected these initial jobless claims to decrease to a seasonally adjusted 345,000 from an original estimate of 354,000 for the week that ended June 15. On Thursday the government tweaked its estimate of initial claims for the week that ended June 15 to 355,000. The average of new claims over the four weeks through June 22 declined by 2,750 to 345,750. Continuing claims, which are reported with a one-week lag and reflect the number of people already receiving benefits, ticked down 1,000 to 2.97 million in the week that ended June 15, reaching the lowest level in more than a month. The four-week average of these continuing claims fell 9,250 to 2.97 million.