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                    US Jobless Benefit Claims Hit 8-Year Low

   by VOA News

   The number of U.S. workers making claims for unemployment benefits fell
   last week to its lowest level in more than eight years.

   Thursday's report was another signal that the American economy, the
   world's largest, is continuing its recovery from the steep recession in
   2008 and 2009, the worst in seven decades. The government's [1]Labor
   Department said that 287,000 jobless workers made first-time claims for
   unemployment compensation, down 8,000 from the week before and the
   lowest figure since June 2006.

   Jobless benefit applications are a sign of how many workers employers
   are laying off. The number of benefit claims has been falling since
   April, an indication that businesses are retaining their workers as the
   economy improves and often adding to their payrolls.

   The jobless claims tally comes as President Barack Obama delivers a
   major economic speech Thursday, telling voters ahead of next month's
   congressional elections that his administration has sharply improved
   the country's sagging economy during his nearly six years in office.

   In Obama's early months in office, the country's unemployment rate hit
   10 percent and millions of homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure
   when they were unable to make monthly loan payments after losing their
   jobs.

   The U.S. jobless rate is now 6.1 percent and the labor market had been
   adding an average of more than 200,000 jobs a month for a year until
   the job growth slowed to 142,000 in August. The government is set to
   release figures for September on Friday, with economists predicting the
   American economy added 215,000 more jobs last month.


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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-jobless-benefit-claims-hit-eight-y
   ear-low/2470117.html

References

   1. http://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-jobless-benefit-claims-hit-eight-year-low/2470117.html