US weekly jobless claims drop slightly

WASHINGTON: New US jobless claims fell below the 400,000 level last week, maintaining a three-week downturn that could suggest improvement in the jobs market, government data showed Thursday.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 395,000 in the week ending August 6, the Labor Department said, down from a revised 402,000 the week earlier and 401,000 in the week to July 23.

The total number of people drawing unemployment benefits around the country dropped by nearly 90,000 in the week to 7.5 million, barely half of the nearly 14 million unemployed in the country.

The initial claims data only gives an idea about the pace of layoffs, while not providing any information about the pace of new hiring.

In the unemployment data for all of July released last week, the overall jobless rate rose slightly to 9.2 percent as layoffs at all levels of government continued to moderate the overall impact of rising hiring in the private sector.

The result was that only a net 117,000 new jobs were created last month, not enough to make a dent in the overall unemployment rate.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011