The department said the 365,000 initial claims on the week was a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's 383,000 initial claims.

The four-week average increased by 2,500 to 364,000, the report said.

The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5 percent.

The report said the biggest increases in claims for the week ending April 26 were reported by Massachusetts with 5,591 additional claims, New York with 4,648 and Kentucky with 3,776.

The biggest decreases for the week were reported by Texas with a decline of 2,373 claims, Rhode Island, declining by 1,835, and California with 1,689 fewer claims than the week of April 26.