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There were only 3,000 fewer first-time claims filed for jobless benefits last week, but the slight decline is being seen as another sign that the nation's labor market will gain some strength once Spring arrives.

The Employment and Training Administration said Thursday that 336,000 applications were submitted last week, vs. 339,000 the week before.

That means the pace of claims is still running about where it's been since late 2011.

But here's how the latest news is being interpreted:

— It's "a sign employers [were] holding the line on firings even as cold weather slowed industries from manufacturing to housing," Bloomberg News says. What's more, "a slowdown in dismissals could lay the groundwork for a pickup in hiring, and more jobs could translate to a boost in consumer spending," which in turn could help give an even further lift to employment.

— The dip points to "steadily improving labor market conditions, despite two straight months of weak hiring," writes Reuters.

— The news signals "steady improvement in the job market," adds The Wall Street Journal.

What might have been a routine update on the state of the federal budget Tuesday instead became the newest front in the ongoing political war over President Obama's signature health care law.

At issue: a revised estimate about how many people would voluntarily leave the workforce because they can get health care without necessarily holding down a job.

The Congressional Budget Office originally predicted that the availability of subsidies for low-income Americans to buy health insurance would result in about 800,000 people leaving full-time work by 2023. The revised estimate increases that number to about 2.5 million.

Republicans pounced, pointing at the nonpartisan office's estimate as proof of the Affordable Care Act's damaging effects on the economy. In a statement, House Speaker John Boehner said: "The middle class is getting squeezed in this economy, and this CBO report confirms that Obamacare is making it worse."

Texas Republican John Cornyn took to the Senate floor with the same message. "The president's own health care policy ... is killing full-time work, and putting people in part-time work," he said.

Obama's White House wasted little time responding, sending Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman to the daily press briefing. There, Furman turned Cornyn's charge on its head, arguing that if some people are able to work part time and spend more time with their children, or if others can leave a job to start a business of their own without fear of losing health insurance, then these are good things happening because of the Affordable Care Act.

The Affordable Care Act, Explained

Just hours after a truce was declared, clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces have broken out again in Ukraine's capital.

By early afternoon Thursday in Kiev, at least 21 civilians had been killed, Reuters reports. Those deaths followed the 25 or so fatalities earlier in the week.

After reading Christopher Leonard's The Meat Racket, a broadside against the contract-farming system, I decided to take a closer look at it.

I drove to North Carolina and ended up in the kind of place that supplies practically all of our chickens: A metal-sided, 500-foot-long structure near the town of Fairmont.

In the dim light, I see 30,000 little chicks scuttling around on the floor. "They're 12 days old," explains Craig Watts, who's growing these birds for Perdue Farms.

Perdue owns the chickens. It also supplies the feed that they eat. About a month from now, when the birds have grown to about 4.5 pounds, the company will send a truck to carry them away, and Watts will get paid. But he never knows how big his check will be.

"It's like that test you took in school — you kind of want to know how you did, but you really don't? It's that kind of feeling," he says.

The uncertainty is part of a peculiar payment system that the chicken industry uses. It's often called a tournament. Critics say it's more like a lottery.

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