Jobless claims rose for the second consecutive week, fueling concerns that the job market is stalling. In the week ending April 7, first time claims for unemployment benefits rose 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 380,000, the highest level since January, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The four-week moving average, a less volatile number that flattens out week-to-week fluctuations in the data, was 368,500, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week. First-time claims for unemployment have mostly remained below 400,000 since November. Analysts say that jobless claims between 350,000 and 375,000 indicate that hiring is picking up at a pace to lower the unemployment rate, which is currently at 8.2 percent. But job creation in March dropped sharply from recent months, and the lowered unemployment reflected that long-term unemployed had given up looking for a job. The number of Americans filing for continuing unemployment claims during the week ending March 31 was 3,251,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the preceding week. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 24 (the most recent data available) was 6,952,876, a decrease of 97,833 from the previous week. States reported 2,794,533 persons claiming emergency unemployment benefits for the week ending March 24, a decrease of 20,555 from the prior week. The largest increases in initial jobless claims for the week ending March 31 were in Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The largest decreases were in Florida, Missouri, New York, Puerto Rico, and Texas.
