WASHINGTON - Weekly unemployment insurance claims decreased by 5,000 to 293,000 according to statistics released by the Department of Labor on Thursday.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 256,289 in the week ending May 12, a decrease of 18,420 from the previous week. There were 288,972 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.
Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky all experienced increases in layoffs related to manufacturing industries, primary metals and industrial machinery.