By Ruth Mantell
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The number of people filing an initial claim for unemployment benefits declined by 11,000 in the week ended April 24 to a seasonally adjusted 448,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The level perfectly matched expectations of economists surveyed by MarketWatch. The four-week average of new claims -- considered a better gauge of underlying trends than the volatile weekly number - rose 1,500 to 462,500. The number of people collecting regular state benefits dropped 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.65 million in the week ended April 17. The four-week average of continuing claims fell 9,000 to 4.64 million, the lowest level since January 2009. In the week ended April 10, about 10.39 million people were collecting some type of unemployment benefits, down 148,000 from the previous week's 10.54 million.
