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May 16, 2002 9:50 AM, EDT

U.S. government reports released Thursday showed housing starts down and new unemployment claims up, dampening some of the positive news received earlier in the week.

Construction of new homes can be a solid source of business for trucking, and a strong employment picture can provide the confidence needed to fuel the economy. Trucking doesn’t welcome gloomy reports on either or both.

Earlier in the week, reports on industrial activity and inventories suggested modest economic improvement.

New housing starts, or the number of single-family homes started by builders, fell 5.4% in the month of April to an annual rate of 1.56 million homes, the Commerce Department said. The decline was the second straight monthly fall and brought the number to its lowest level of the year.

Analysts had predicted a drop in housing starts, but only to a rate of 1.625 million, Bloomberg reported.

The number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits for the first time rose 2,000 last week to 418,000, the Labor Department reported.

he four-week moving average, a tool used to take the volatility out of the weekly report, fell to 420,750 from 429,250.

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