Claims for unemployment benefits drop by 6,000 amid more hiring

Claims For Unemployment Benefits Drop

Unemployment benefit claims declined for the second time in three weeks, dropping by 6,000 to 388,000 last week according to the latest Labor Department report. That may signal that U.S. businesses are retaining more workers and looking to hire additional ones as the economy recovers.

The current number of applications for unemployment benefits is near the 375,000 threshold needed for sustained hiring by employers. At the height of the economic recession, there were 659,000 claims recorded.

Lending credence to the brighter job outlook is the four-week average of claims, which increased to 394,250.

The Labor Department also made some changes to reports made in the last five years to reflect more claims in recent weeks than earlier reported.

Those who collected unemployment benefits in the week through March 19 also dipped by 51,000 to 3.7 million, the lowest mark since October 2008. Overall, about 8.8 million people received jobless benefits in the week through March 12.

A report released this week by Business Roundtable said that half of the 200 biggest U.S. businesses want to hire more workers during the first half of 2011. Non-profit business research firm Conference Board also reported an uptick of 5 percent more job postings online in March.

Hiring should reach 300,000 every month to drastically bring down the unemployment rate, currently at a high 8.9 percent. Approximately one million jobs have been added to the economy in the past year, but the total number of jobs is still short by 7.5 million compared to pre-recession levels.

Economists forecast that more aggressive hiring will further reduce claims for unemployment benefits.

Posted by James Fried on Friday April 01 2011, 7:17 AM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0