Filings for state unemployment
benefits eased for the fifth week in the past seven as companies
expecting growth to accelerate in the second half slowed the pace
of firings, government figures showed.
States received a seasonally adjusted 430,000 new
applications for jobless insurance in the week that ended
Saturday, down from a revised 447,000 in the week before, the
Labor Department said. The four-week moving average of claims, a
less volatile measure, rose to 433,750 from 431,500.
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Companies have been trying to keep a lid on hiring until the
economy picks up. Even as claims have come down from a 13-month
high of 459,000 in the week ended April 19, the total has held
above 400,000, which some economists consider a sign of labor
market weakness, since early February.
“Employment data appears to be improving,” said Sherry
Cooper, chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. in Toronto,
before the report. “The initial claims data continues at a level
consistent with very slack demand in the labor market, but it
seems to be stabilizing.”
Bloomberg News
