Unemployment Claims Tick Up
The AP is reporting:
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits ticked up 1,000
last week to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, a level consistent with
steady job gains.
The Labor Department says the four-week average, a less volatile
measure, fell for the third straight week to 331,500. Both figures are
close to pre-recession levels and suggest that companies are laying off
few workers.
One sour note in the report: Nearly 1.4 million people who have been
unemployed longer than six months lost benefits in the week that ended
Jan. 4, the latest period for which figures are available. That's
because an emergency program that provided extended benefits expired
Dec. 28.
The number of recipients fell to 3.7 million from 4.7 million in the
previous week. About 300,000 people began receiving unemployment
benefits in the week ended Jan. 4.
The total number of beneficiaries was already falling steadily even
before the cutoff: More than 5.6 million people were receiving aid a
year ago.
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