4-week jobless aid claims lowest since '08

Reuters

The number of Americans signing up for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week, the latest sign of recovery in the U.S. labor market.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits dropped 15,000 to 358,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. A four-week average of new filings, which provides a better view of the trend, hit its lowest level since April 2008.

The decline in first-time claims, which defied economists' forecasts for a rise to 370,000, pointed to building strength in the labor market and raised the odds of another solid increase in employment this month.

"We are getting better employment growth and are seeing some signs that we are getting some self-sustaining aspects of economic activity," said Michael Strauss, chief economist at Commonfund in Wilton, Conn.

U.S. employers added 243,000 workers to their payrolls in January and the unemployment rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.3 percent, leading many Wall Street economists to push their growth forecasts higher.

Last week's decline in new applications for jobless aid brought them closer to the 350,000-mark that economists say would signal sustained labor market strength. Initial claims spent much of 2004-08 below that level before shooting sharply higher as the economy's troubles deepened.

Despite the fairly upbeat claims data, U.S. stocks ended marginally higher, with investors adopting a wait-and-see attitude to news that Greece had reached a deal to secure a financial bailout.

Prices for longer-dated Treasury debt tumbled, while the U.S. dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies.