Jobless Claims Fall in Latest Week

U.S. initial jobless claims fell by 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 405,000 in the week ended April 5, the Labor Department said. It was the biggest one-week drop in a year. But for the eighth week in a row, the level remained above the key 400,000 mark that economists consider a weak labor market.

The decline still was bigger than expected. Economists in a Reuters poll forecast, on average, that claims would decline to 428,000.