1st-time jobless claims unchanged

Initial unemployment benefits claims for last week were 374,000, unchanged from the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average was 370,250, up 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 368,750. The advance number of unadjusted actual first-time jobless benefits claims under state programs totaled 309,923 for the week that ended Saturday, a decrease of 1,864 from the previous week, the Labor Department said. There were 336,761 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011, the department's Employment and Training Administration said in a release.