Jobless Claims At Near Five-Year Low

It’s a sign that the labor market is coming back.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 366,000, the Labor Department said. That was enough to pull down a four-week moving average of new claims, a gauge of the trend in layoffs, by 2,250 to 350,500, its lowest since March 2008.

“The labor market is improving, but certainly not at a robust rate by any means,” said Russell Price, an economist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.