The number of US workers applying for first-time state jobless benefits declined last week amid a weak but improving labour market, a government report said today.
Initial jobless claims fell by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 421,000 for the week ended April 20th, the Labor Department reported. Wall Street economists in a poll were expecting claims to fall to 425,000.
The four-week moving average, considered a more reliable gauge of employment conditions because it irons out weekly fluctuations, rose for the eighth week in a row, hitting 452,500. That was the highest level reached since November of last year when the economy was losing jobs heavily after the September 11th attacks.
Even though claims fell in the most recently reported week, the level for the past several weeks has remained well above the key 400,000 level economists consider recessionary.
The Labor Department attributes this to a pick-up in applications for extended benefits from jobless workers who have exhausted their unemployment aid. However, these extended benefits applications have begun to taper off, the department said.
But the decline in last week's claims was taken as good news by economists, who say the labor market is showing signs of improvement.
In a sign of better days ahead for the US labour market, the number of workers continuing on jobless benefits declined by 93,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.7 million for the week ended April 13th, the department said.
But the still-weak labour market will likely be a chief concern of the Federal Reserve when policy-makers there meet next month to set interest rates.