Wall Street Journal (04/26/12) Eric Morath; Tom Barkley
The number of Americans who filed requests for jobless benefits was virtually unchanged last week at 388,000, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday, keeping claims near their highest level of 2012. Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 389,000 from 386,000. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires predicted that 376,000 new claims would be filed last week. The four-week moving average of claims, which smoothes out week-to-week volatility, increased by 6,250 to 381,750, the highest reading since the first week of the year.