Option Millionaires

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The number of people who applied for unemployment-insurance benefits ticked up by 2,000 to 304,000 in the week that ended April 12 , a slight increase from the lowest level since 2007, signaling that employers are maintaining a slow pace of layoffs, according to government data released Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to total a seasonally adjusted 315,000 in the latest weekly data. The average of new claims over the past month dropped by 4,750 to 312,000, hitting the lowest level since October 2007 , just two months before the recession began. Trends for the monthly average are smoother than the jumpy week-to-week data. Also Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that continuing claims decreased by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.74 million in the week ended April 5 , hitting the lowest level since December 2007 . Continuing claims reflect the number of people already receiving benefits. The four-week average of these continuing claims fell 32,500 to 2.79 million, the lowest since January 2008 .