First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits increased by more than expected in the week ended March 23rd, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report showed that initial jobless claims rose to 357,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 341,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 340,000 from the 336,000 originally reported for the previous week. While jobless claims rose for the second straight week, Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital, noted, "The last two weekly increases totaled 23,000, which doesn't do much damage to the improvement seen so far in 2013." The Labor Department said its less volatile four-week moving average edged up to 343,000, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 340,750. The modest increase by the four-week moving average came after it fell to its lowest level since February of 2008 in the previous week. Meanwhile, continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell to 3.05 million in the week ended March 16th from the preceding week's revised level of 3.077 million. The four-week moving average of continuing claims fell to 3,072,500, a decrease of 13,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,085,500.