"The trend suggests a very slow improvement in the labour market"
- Gary Thayer, a macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors
The number of Americans filling new claims for unemployment benefits dropped to almost a five-year low, suggesting the improvement in the labour market, the Labor Department said Thursday. Initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 339,000 in the week ended April 20, down from 355,000 a week earlier and beating analysts' expectations for a 352,000 reading. The reports of the unemployment claims can be choppy from week to week; nevertheless, they are considered one of the most important gauges of the job market's strength. At the same time, at the height of the financial crisis in 2009, jobless claims rose as high as 670,000. The less-volatile four-week moving average fell 4,500 to 357,500.
"Firms cut their workforces to the bone during the recession and its aftermath and layoffs are going to remain relatively low pretty much regardless of whether the economy picks up or slows down," said chief economist Stephen Stanley of Pierpont Securities.
"The trend suggests a very slow improvement in the labour market," said Gary Thayer, a macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis.
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