WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans sought unemployment aid last week, reducing the average number of weekly applications last month to a five-year low. The drop shows that fewer layoffs are strengthening the job market.
The Labor Department said Thursday that applications fell 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 332,000. That cut the four-week average to 346,750, the lowest since March 2008, just several months after the Great Recession began.
The report "provides further evidence of a gradual strengthening in labor market conditions," Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They have fallen nearly 13 percent since November.
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