Washington--New claims for US unemployment insurance benefits fell by 8,000 last week as the job market continued to add strength, Labor Department data showed Thursday.
Jobless claims, a sign of the pace of layoffs, fell to 276,000 in the week to May 30 from 284,000 the previous week.
The four-week moving average for claims edged up to 274,570, well below the 310,500 average a year ago.
"The trend is now very firmly established below 300,000 -- though anything can happen during the looming retooling shutdowns at the automakers," said Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
Even so, he said, "claims are consistent with payroll growth approaching 300,000 per month."
On Friday, the Labor Department releases its jobs market report for May, with economists on average predicting that the economy generated a solid 225,000 jobs last month, holding the unemployment rate at 5.4 percent.
The more optimistic Shepherdson said that forecast "looks a bit timid to us."
AFP
