NEW claims for unemployment benefits in the US fell more than expected last week, pointing to more healing in the nation’s battered jobs market.
Data on jobless claims zigzagged over the last few weeks, but the figures suggest employers are less eager to lay off workers, offering hope they could also step up hiring as the economy recovers.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, the Labor Department said yesterday.
A separate report from the department showed growth in US nonfarm productivity slowed in the fourth quarter, which also suggested companies might be closer to squeezing all they can out of their current staff.
“For the moment that’s a good thing because it means that any expansion in demand will lead to hiring,” said Pierre Ellis, an economist at Decision Economics in New York.
Meanwhile, US home prices fell in 2011 for the fifth year in a row, weighed down by distressed sales of houses scooped up at bargain prices, data analysis firm CoreLogic said.
CoreLogic’s home price index fell 4.7 per cent in 2011. Excluding distress sales, prices declined just 0.9 per cent.
The report also showed home prices fell for the fifth consecutive month in December, down 1.4 per cent compared to the previous month. But without distressed sales, home prices gained 0.2 per cent.
