US jobless claims up slightly in tight market

First-time claims for US jobless benefits rose modestly last week but were still at historically low levels, pointing to the continued health of labor markets, government data showed Thursday.

The new figures suggest the jobs market could again see robust growth this month as they were collected during the survey week for the Labor Department's closely-watched monthly employment report due out April 6.

Workers are becoming increasingly scarce amid very low unemployment but last month employers added a stunning 313,000 net new positions, possibly due to employees coming off the sidelines and rejoining the workforce.

For the week ending March 17, new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 3,000 to 229,000, marginally above analyst expectations which had called for a token decrease of 1,000 claims, according to the Labor Department report.