Fewer Workers Filed Claims for U.S. Jobless Benefits Last Week
By Alex Kowalski & Shobhana Chandra - Feb 7, 2013 8:30 AM ET ..
Claims for U.S. unemployment insurance payments fell last week, returning to levels seen in the second half of 2012.
Applications for jobless benefits dropped 5,000 to 366,000 in the week ended Feb. 2, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 360,000 claims, according to the median of 53 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Claims, after see-sawing in prior weeks as the government had trouble adjusting the data for seasonal swings, are settling at a level that signals there is little change in the pace of firings from last year. The data come after a report last week indicated employers are boosting payrolls at a faster pace as demand holds up.
“It could be better, but you’re still seeing improvement in other labor market data,” Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said before the report.
Economists’ claims estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 343,000 to 370,000. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s reading to 371,000 from the initially reported 368,000.
A Labor Department official today said there was nothing unusual that affected today’s figures, and no states were estimated.
The productivity of U.S. workers fell in the fourth quarter by the most in almost two years, pushing labor expenses up more than forecast, a sign businesses are near the limit of how much efficiency they can wring from employees, another report from the Labor Department showed today.
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