US jobless claims steady at 295,000

Washington: New claims for US unemployment insurance benefits held steady last week above the trend, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.

Initial jobless claims in the week to April 18 rose by just 1,000 over the previous week to 295,000.

The four-week moving average of claims edged up 1,750 to 284,500, well below the year-ago level of 319,500.

Jobless claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs across the country, have ticked up in the past few months in part due to mounting layoffs in the oil industry, which has been hit hard by the 50 percent plunge in oil prices.

Partly due to layoffs, the economy added only a net 126,000 new jobs in March, the worst month since December 2013. The unemployment rate held unchanged at 5.5 percent.