U.S. jobless claims stagnant

WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- First-time jobless claims dropped by 2,000 in the week ended Saturday, a figure that canceled the previous week's revision, the U.S. Labor Department said.

Initial unemployment benefit claims for the previous week were originally reported as unchanged. In the current report, the number was revised to show a gain of 2,000 to 372,000. This week, the Labor Department reported first-time claims returned to 370,000, while four-week rolling average fell by 5,500 to 370,000, a rare match up of the rolling average and the weekly total.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 12 were in North Carolina (up by 1,956), Mississippi (up by 675) and Tennessee (up by 474). The largest decreases were in California (down by 3,478), New York (down by 3,094) and Missouri (down by 2,111).

The U.S. unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, falling 0.1 percentage points from March to April.