Continuing claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended March 22 were 2.836 million, up from a downwardly-revised 2.814 million the week before but below the consensus forecast of 2.843 million.
"While accompanying historical revisions have modestly shifted the profile of the claims data and despite the upward surprise on the headline index, we continue to see claims on a more positive footing over the past several weeks," says Gennadiy Goldberg, a U.S. strategist at TD Securities.
"The 4-week moving average of the jobless claims data remained nearly flat despite the jump latest week's jump, edging to 320,000 from 319,000 - remaining near the lowest levels since October 2013."