By Jeffry Bartash
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The number of people who applied for new unemployment benefits climbed by 28,000 to 326,000 in the week ended May 17, erasing the prior week's decline, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. Initial claims had fallen in the prior week to a seven-year low, but the sharp drop appeared to reflect seasonal quirks tied to a late Easter holiday that have now mostly faded away. Still, the level of claims continues to hover near a post-recession bottom, a sign that companies are cutting the fewest workers since the recession ended in mid-2009. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected initial claims to total 315,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The average of new claims over the past month dipped by 1,000 to 322,500. The monthly figure smooths out the gyrations in the weekly data and offers a better look at underlying labor-market trends. Also, the government said continuing claims decreased by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.65 million in the week ended May 10. Continuing claims reflect the number of people already receiving benefits. Initial claims from two weeks ago, meanwhile, were revised up to 298,000 from 297,000.
