New claims for US unemployment benefits dropped last week by more than 2%, confirming an improvement in the troubled labour market seen since mid-August, government data showed today.
Initial claims for the week ending October 2 fell to 445,000, a drop of 2.4% from the previous week and the second consecutive week of decline, according to the Labor Department report. The previous week's claims figure was revised upward to 456,000, from 453,000.
The figures came ahead of tomorrow's eagerly anticipated Labor Department report on September employment. The consensus forecast is the economy created zero jobs and the unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point to 9.7%.
Today's latest weekly jobless claims number put claims below the 450,000-level for the first time since mid-July and confirmed a downward trend since hitting the year's peak in mid-August.
The drop in claims surprised most analysts who had projected a rise to 453,000 claims as the economy grapples with weak recovery more than a year after the end of the worst recession in decades. Over eight million jobs have been lost since the economy entered recession in December 2007.
