The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose to 360,000 last week, a 30,000 increase that was the biggest in more than a year, the US Labor Department reported.

　　Claims had fallen to a revised 330,000 the previous week. Even with the increase, claims have averaged 351,000 this year, down from 402,100 for all of last year. The department said claims tend to be unusually volatile during the first week of a quarter and the Easter holidays, which coincided this year.

　　While firings have slowed and employment has picked up the past few months as growth accelerates, companies including DuPont Co are still shedding workers to reduce costs and boost profits. The prospect of increased borrowing costs and diminishing tax refunds heightens the importance of job growth to buttress consumer spending, economists said.

　　"We need to see stronger income gains as well as job creation to ensure healthy consumer spending in the second half of the year," Kathy Bostjancic, a senior economist at Merrill Lynch & Co, said in a note to clients. Bostjancic expects a monthly average of 150,000 to 200,000 jobs to be created in the months ahead.

　　The last time claims rose by 30,000 or more was in the week that ended December 7, 2002, when they increased by 42,000 to 431,000. Claims last week were at their highest level since the week that ended February 7.

　　The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile indicator, rose to 344,250 from 337,500 the previous week.

　　Economists had projected claims would rise last week to 335,000, based on the median of 30 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.

　　The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits fell by 22,000 to 2.980 million in the week that ended April 3 from 3 million a week earlier. That was the lowest since 2.975 million in the week that ended July 21, 2001.

　　The statistics are reported with a one-week lag to initial claims.

　　The insured unemployment rate, which tends to move with the jobless rate, stayed at 2.4 percent the week before last. The Labor Department also said 33 states and territories reported an increase in new claims, while 20 reported a decrease.

　　Earlier this month the government reported that March payrolls rose by 308,000 workers, the biggest increase since April 2000. An increase in the number of people seeking work brought the unemployment rate up to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent.

　　(Bloomberg News)