"Employers are not necessarily shedding workers, but they are not necessarily enthusiastic about adding to payrolls either"
- Tom Simons, an economist at Jefferies LLC
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a five-year low, suggesting the improvement in the labour market, the Labor Department said Thursday. Initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 324,000 in the week ended April 27, down from 342,000 a week earlier and beating analysts' expectations for a 346,000 reading. The reports of the unemployment claims can be choppy from week to week; nevertheless, they are considered to be 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 to 342,250 from 358,250.
"Employers are not necessarily shedding workers, but they are not necessarily enthusiastic about adding to payrolls either," said Tom Simons, an economist at Jefferies LLC in New York, who projected claims would drop to 335,000.
"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.
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