It seems that the US jobless claims rose by 21,000 to 313,000, which suggests that the overall number of jobs is growing, experts say. According to the Labor Department which issued a report on Wednesday, jobless claims rose by the end of last week.
The economists have expected approximately 289,000 new job claims, but the real figures were slightly bigger, 292,000. This is the first time since September that the US jobless claims have exceeded 300,000. The experts added that the jobless claims can change very quickly and fluctuate constantly. The average of jobless claimed that took the fluctuations into account went from 6,250 to 294,000.
The economists say that they are not bothered by these extreme fluctuations and changes of claims, and added that the claims are still below the average since the great recession began. This indicates that the US labor market is slowly recovering and is getting stronger.
Experts revealed that the US is in the middle of the longest stretch of job growth since the World War II.
The first jobless claims have reached 665,000 in 2009, which was near the end of the economic recession. Since then, the US jobless claims have gone down.
US employers have added 229, 000 jobs every month, which helps to bring down the unemployment figures. Also, the jobless rate has gone down almost 5,8% in October; same time last year the figures showed 7,2%.
Experts talked about another encouraging sign: American citizens are quitting their jobs voluntarily in higher numbers, which suggests that they are more confident to find other jobs quicker.
All these improvements translate into one thing: the US economy has improved with 3.9% and in the third quarter of 2014 and continues to do so.
Still, there is more to be done in order to bring the US economy back to its feet after being heavily crippled by the recession. There are still 9 million Americans without a job and 7 million who can only find part-time positions.
The job gains have not helped the wages go up too much and the hourly pay rose by only 3 cents in October, to a total of $24.57.