Weekly Claims for Jobless Benefits Decline

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 last week, driving down the four-week average to its lowest level in five years, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was a positive sign ahead of Friday’s report on February job growth.

Applications for benefits fell 7,000 in the week ended March 2, the government said. That was near a five-year low reached in January. And the four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped 7,000 to 348,750, the lowest since March 2008, just a few months into the recession.

Weekly applications are a proxy for layoffs. When they fall, it suggests that companies are shedding fewer jobs and that more hiring may follow.

The decline adds to other evidence that hiring may have been better last month than had economists forecast. Economists project the unemployment rate to fall to 7.8 percent from 7.9 percent.

The economy generated an average of 200,000 jobs a month from November through January. That was up from about 150,000 in the previous three months. In January, 157,000 were added.

The payroll services provider A.D.P. said Wednesday that businesses added 198,000 jobs in February, above most analysts’ expectations. And January’s hiring was revised higher by 23,000 to 215,000.

Services firms, including retailers, restaurants and construction companies, added jobs at a healthy clip, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s monthly survey. An index of hiring by service companies slipped but remained near January’s seven-year high.

The I.S.M.’s manufacturing survey found that factories also added workers in February, too, though at a slower pace than the previous month.

The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell to 5.4 million in the week ended Feb. 16, the latest data available. That was a drop of 362,000 from the previous week. Some of the decline is probably because people found work, but some may be because many have used up all the benefits available.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/business/economy/weekly-claims-for-jobless-benefits-decline.html?partner=rss&emc=rss