WASHINGTON—The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits dropped for the first time in four weeks, a renewed yet seasonally tempered sign of job gains following March's weakness in the labor market.

Initial jobless claims, a measure of layoffs, decreased by 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000 in the week ending April 6, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was the biggest weekly drop since November. Economists had expected 360,000 new applications.

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