New Jobless Claims Drop By 11,000

It seems like there have been plenty of new reports regarding the economy, and yesterday it was reported that Americans filed 11,000 less jobless claims last week than the week before.

Although this is good news, the national unemployment is still at 9.7%, and an estimated 448,000 Americans out of work. Check out the following story from Washington Post regarding the new jobless reports.

Continuing unemployment claims last week rose slightly to 4.66 million, up from 4.64 million the previous week.

The four-week moving average on new jobless claims, which smoothes out volatility in the data, rose 1,500 to 462,500. This bump up is so small as to be nearly statistically insignificant. If the four-week moving average begins to flatten and then eventually turn downward, the economy will get closer to creating new jobs.

Forecasters expected last week's number to come in at 448,000.

The official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.7 percent. The April number will be released next Friday and forecasters expect the number to remain unchanged. Economists say that the unemployment rate will stay near 10 percent through the end of the year.

Generally, economists say that new job growth can't begin until the new jobless claims number gets down into the low 400,000s or upper 300,000s and stays there. This time last week, the economy was shedding 700,000 new jobs per week. And though the number is much better this year, the weekly jobless claims number remains stubbornly stuck in the mid-400,000s.