"The labor market is certainly getting better"
- Brian Jones, senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale
New applications for the unemployment benefits in the world's biggest economy dropped significantly during the last week, pointing to further improvement in the labour market. The Labor Department said that the number of people who applied for U.S. jobless benefits dropped by 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000 in the week ended January 19, down from 372,000 a week earlier. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure, stood at 359,250, from the previous week's revised average of 365,750. At the same time, employers added 155,000 in the last month of 2012, nearly matched the average of 153,000 jobs per month in 2011 and 2012. The number of people, which continue to receive unemployment aid, however, rose by 87,000 to 3.21 million in the week ended January 5.
"The labor market is certainly getting better," said Brian Jones, senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York, who projected 345,000 claims. Even with the seasonal adjustment issues, "this is still a good report. Chances are claims remain at a fairly low level."
"Over the past few weeks the claims data have been difficult to interpret because of holiday-related volatility," said Marisa Di Natale of Moody's Analytics.
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