2019.03.0709:14:00UTC+00U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Show Modest Decrease

A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a modest decrease in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended March 2nd.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 223,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 226,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 225,000 originally reported for the previous week.

The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average dipped to 226,250, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 229,250.

Continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, also fell by 50,000 to 1.755 million in the week ended February 23rd.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still rose to 1,766,500, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 1,761,750.

On Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report for February

Employment is expected to rise by 180,000 jobs in February after jumping by 304,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 3.3 percent from 3.2 percent.