New jobless claims drop more than expected
Fri Aug 7 00:32:18 EST 2009
The US government says the number of newly-laid off workers seeking unemployment insurance fell last week .. fresh evidence that layoffs are easing.
The Labour Department says initial claims for jobless benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 550-thousand people for the week ending August 1 .. down from an upwardly revised figure of 588-thousand.
That's much lower than analysts had estimated.