The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits edged marginally lower in the latest week, showing the job market is heading haltingly in the right direction.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that seasonally-adjusted jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 367,000. The four-week moving average, considered a more accurate gauge of job market conditions, dropped by 5,250 to 384,250. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims inching up to 369,000 last week.
Coming on the heels of April's sluggish employment gains, the claims data could calm fears the labor market was stagnating.
Companies added a meager 115,000 new jobs to their payrolls in April, the fewest in six months, the government reported last Friday.
Most economists have viewed the pull-back in job creation as payback after the weather-induced gains in the previous months and believe the underlying pace of payrolls growth is around 175,000 - the monthly average for the past three months.
Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last month said an unseasonably warm winter had probably brought forward some of the hiring by companies, artificially boosting payrolls in January and February.
A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level claims data and no states had been estimated.
The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid dropped 61,000 to 3.23 million in the week ended April 28. That was the lowest level since July 2008.
The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell 36,275 to 2.69 million in the week ended April 21, the latest week for which data is available. The number of people on extended benefits slipped 4,304 to 350,579.
Some states are losing their eligibility for extended benefits and reducing the duration of emergency compensation. That could artificially push down the unemployment rate as people dropping off the benefits rolls give up the hunt for work.
A drop in the share of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one to near a 30-1/2-year low pushed the jobless rate down to 8.1 percent last month from 8.2 percent in March.
A total of 6.42 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during the week ending April 21 under all programs, down 174,529 from the prior week.
Reuters contributed to this report.
