Jobless claims drop by 4000 in week

The U.S. Labor Department said first-time jobless benefits claims dropped by 4,000 to 323,000 in the week that ended Saturday. The department revised last week's estimate from 324,000 to 327,000, taking away most of the impact of the 4,000 claim drop. With the addition, however, initial benefits claims have dropped by 32,000 in the past three weeks and by 68,000 over the past five weeks. The four-week rolling average for the week fell by 6,250 to 336,750. The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 27 were in Illinois with an additional 1,744 claims and Oregon with 1,244 additional claims. The largest decreases were in California, where claims dropped by 3,721 and Michigan, where claims fell by 2,993.