The number of people seeking first-time U.S. unemployment benefits fell sharply last week as a temporary spike caused by superstorm Sandy has faded, the U.S. government reported Thursday. Weekly jobless claims have declined for three consecutive weeks and now are at a level consistent with modest hiring. The Labor Department said jobless claims fell 25,000 last week to 370,000. The four-week moving average of jobless claims, a better measure of labor-market trends, rose 2,250 to 408,000, reflecting the impact of the late-October storm that hit the U.S. east coast. Jobless claims spiked a month ago after Sandy closed businesses in the northeast. Claims jumped to 451,000 a week after the storm. Before Sandy hit on October 29, jobless claims had fluctuated this year between 360,000 and 390,000, coinciding with only modest declines in the unemployment rate.
