"We have seen considerable improvements in this series, and the labour market, particularly when it comes to layoffs"
- Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services
The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell sharply last week, easing fears of a marked deterioration in the labour market conditions after a surprise stumble in job growth last month. The report by the Labour Department showed that the number of the initial jobless applications dropped 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000 in the week ended April 5th. Economists had expected 360,000 new applications. The less-volatile four-week moving average for new claims, which is considered to be a better measure of labour market trends, increased 3,000 to 358,000. In the meantime, the seasonal distortions in the data are likely to remain over the next few weeks.
"We have seen considerable improvements in this series, and the labour market, particularly when it comes to layoffs," said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services in Troy, Michigan.
"It is an encouraging sign for the labour market that the latest decline in claims undid most of the deterioration in the data reported over the previous few weeks," said Daniel Silver, an economist with J.P. Morgan Chase& Co.
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