The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week but remains at a level consistent with a modest labor-market recovery, the U.S. government reported Thursday. The Labor Department said jobless claims rose 4,000 to 352,000. The four-week moving average of claims, considered a better measure of labor-market trends, rose 2,750 to 361,250. Despite the increase in claims last week, they held near a level economists normally associate with average monthly job gains of more than 150,000. The consistent jobless-claims level could help further ease worries of a deterioration in labor-market conditions after the government said U.S. payrolls posted their smallest increase in nine months in March. Employers added 88,000 workers to payrolls last month following an increase of 268,000 in February.
