Barbara Boland
Fewer workers received unemployment benefits at the end of April than at any other time in the last 28 years, the Department of Labor reported Thursday, and when the last four weeks are taken into account, total unemployment benefit claims are at their lowest rate since 1974. .
There were only 236,000 new jobless claims, better than the forecasted 244,000.
This sign of a strong labor market may encourage the Fed to raise interest rates, some analysts predict. At 4.4 percent for April, the unemployment rate is below where Federal Reserve official believe it would be if the market was healthy.
Economists say that jobless claims below the 300,000 mark indicate stable or falling unemployment, the Washington Examiner reports.
