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US Jobless Claims Fall

   New  unemployment  claims totaled 432,000 last week, the lowest figure
   since July 2008

   Michael Bowman | Washington 31 December 2009

Photo: AP

   Nick  Ayrom,  from Glendale, California, a former high school teacher,
   looks for technology related jobs on a computer terminal, 30 Dec. 2009

   The  number of newly-laid off Americans has fallen to the lowest level
   in  a  year  and a half, the latest sign the U.S. job market is on the
   mend.
   The  Labor  Department reports new unemployment claims totaled 432,000
   last  week,  down  22,000  from the previous week.  That is the lowest
   figure  since  July, 2008, and a significant reduction from the nearly
   700,000  jobs  that were being lost each week during the worst stretch
   of the economic recession in early 2009.
   Global Insight economist Nigel Gault says unemployment is easing.
   "The trend is clear," Gault said. "It is well established now, and the
   [unemployment] trend is down.  We are now roughly in the zone which is
   consistent with the economy just beginning to add jobs."
   Not  only  are  new  job  losses  down, but the total number of people
   receiving  unemployment  benefits  has also dropped by 57,000.  If the
   trend  continues,  the number of jobs created will outpace job losses,
   and  U.S.  unemployment, which stands at a 26-year high of 10 percent,
   will decline, according to Nigel Gault.
   "We  can  look forward to 2010 with a lot more confidence that some of
   those  jobs  are  going  to  come back," Gault said. "They are not all
   going  to  come  back  quickly  and maybe some of them will never come
   back.  But we are going to start creating jobs."
   The  federal  government will issue its next unemployment reading next
   week.
   The  improved  unemployment  numbers follow reports of a boost in U.S.
   consumer  confidence  and  indications  that  American retailers fared
   better  during  the economically-critical holiday shopping season than
   had been anticipated.

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