Jobless claims drop by 5,000

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Labor Department said first-time jobless benefits claims dropped by 5,000 in the week that ended Saturday.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits reached pre-recession levels in the previous week with a decline of 37,000 first time claims.

Last week's total of 335,000 initial claims was left unrevised. In the week that ended Saturday, the total came to 330,000 first-time claims.

The four-week rolling average for the week dropped by 8,250 to 351,750.

In the current week, the unadjusted advance number of first-time unemployment benefits claims under state programs totaled 436,766 for the week, a 119,944 drop from the previous week, the Labor Department said.

For the comparable week of 2012, there were 416,880 initial claims.