The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 332,000 for the week ending March 9. This decline moved the four-week moving average, a less volatile statistic, to 346,750, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised figure and the lowest four-week average in five years. While another positive sign for the employment situation, analysts note that businesses are hiring at too slow a pace to significantly bring down the still high unemployment rate, now at 7.7 percent, and also cite concerns that federal spending cuts may hurt jobs numbers.

Link: News Release