By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell 14,000 in the week ended March 20 to a seasonally adjusted 442,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch predicted claims would drop to 450,000, but the latest figure reflects annual revisions to the data that put claims 10,000 lower than they would have been under the old methodology, a Labor official said. The four-week average -- a better gauge of employment trends than the volatile weekly number - declined by 11,000 to 453,750. In the week of March 6, about 5.7 million jobless workers were receiving extended federal benefits, down 345,000 from the week before.
