US: Weekly initial jobless claims 214K for the week ending March 11

In the week ending March 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 241,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 243,000. The 4-week moving average was 237,250, an increase of 750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 236,500, according to the report released by the United States Department of Labor.

It was the 106th straight week that claims remained below 300,000, a threshold associated with a healthy labor market. Thursday's claims report also showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid declined 30,000 to 2.03 million in the week ended March 4.