The fewest Americans in almost 44 years filed applications to collect unemployment benefits last week, indicating the job market continues to power forward, Bloomberg reports. Jobless claims fell by 19,000 to 223,000 in the week ended Feb. 25, the fewest since March 1973, the Labor Department reported today. The decline was below the lowest projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which called for a median forecast of 245,000 applications.

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