Jobless claims drop by 10,000

WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Labor Department said first-time jobless benefits claims dropped by 10,000 to 332,000 in the week that ended last Saturday.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell from a revised 342,000 from the previous week. Last week's number of claims had been reported at 340,000.

The four-week rolling average for the week dropped 2,750 to 346,750.

The largest increases in claims for the week that ended March 2 were in California with a jump of 11,720 and New York with a gain of 7,900. The largest declines were in Massachusetts and North Carolina drops of 4,193 and 1,146, respectively.