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A day ahead of the release of the closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a modest increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended March 26th.
The report showed initial jobless claims edged up to 202,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level of 188,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 197,000 from the 187,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The figure originally reported for the previous week reflected the lowest number of jobless claims since September of 1969.
