The number of people applying for unemployment benefits essentially held steady at 444,000 in the latest week, a reflection of a still-fragile U.S. job market.
Claims fell by 4,000 in the week ended May 8, but the data was revised up by 4,000 for the prior week to a seasonally adjusted 448,000, according to the Labor Department.
The net effect: no change from last week's headline number.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch predicted initial claims would dip to a seasonally adjusted 440,000.
The four-week average of initial claims -- a better gauge of employment trends than the volatile weekly number -- dropped by 9,000 to 450,500.
Initial claims have fallen just 2.2% since the beginning of the year, but they are 29% lower compared with a year ago.
A slow downward trend in weekly claims over the past month, taken together with other employment data, suggests companies are firing fewer workers and that hiring is on the rise. Last week, the government reported that 290,000 jobs were created in April, the biggest gain in four years.
Yet it's far from clear whether recent hiring trends are sustainable. Many consumers are still saddled with large debts and the jolt from the massive federal stimulus program could wear off later this year.
Economists generally believe weekly claims have to fall below 400,000 to signify accelerating job growth. And they say monthly job growth has to average 300,000 to 400,000 to make a big dent in the nation's 9.9% unemployment rate. More than eight million people lost their jobs during the height of the recession in 2008 and 2009.
The number of people who continue to get regular unemployment checks, meanwhile, rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.63 million in the week ended May 1. That's the most recent data available.
In the week of April 24, meanwhile, the number of workers receiving extended federal benefits declined by almost 217,000 to 5.14 million, not seasonally adjusted.
Extended benefits kick in after a recipient exhausts eligibility for state unemployment compensation, usually after 26 weeks. Lawmakers have extended benefits for up to 99 weeks to workers in the states hit hardest by the recession.
Altogether, 10.07 million people were collecting some type of unemployment benefits in the week ended April 24, down 332,264. The numbers are not seasonally adjusted
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