The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits was little changed last week, the U.S. government said Thursday, and the underlying trend suggested the labor market continued to steadily improve. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose 1,000 to 326,000, in line with economist expectations. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of labor-market trends because it is less volatile, fell 3,750 to 331,500. The four-week average fell more than 12,000 between December and January, suggesting some acceleration in job growth this month. Despite the improving job market, almost 1.4 million people who have been unemployed longer than six months lost benefits last week because a federal emergency program that provided extended benefits expired December 28. The total number of people receiving unemployment benefits fell to 3.7 million from 4.7 million the previous week. About 300,000 people began receiving unemployment benefits last week.
