WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- First-time benefit claims for unemployment insurance fell by 6,000 in the week ending March 26, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday.
In the week, 388,000 initial claims were filed, as claims have falling in seven of the past 10 weeks.
During the week, the four-week rolling average of initial claims filed rose by 3,250 to 394,250.
The unemployment rate in February fell from 9 percent to 8.9 percent. A Labor Department report on the national employment situation is due Friday.
The Labor Department said the biggest increases in first-time jobless benefits claims for the week ending March 19 were reported by North Carolina 974 additional claims, Missouri, which added 907, and Tennessee, which added 474.
For the week ending March 19, the biggest decreases were reported by Illinois with a decline of 2,696, California with a decline of 2,150 and Pennsylvania, where initial claims fell by 2,145.
