WASHINGTON, July 22 (AFP) - The queue of people claiming US unemployment benefits shrank modestly last week, a government report showed Thursday, a hopeful sign for the labor market.
The number of new unemployment benefit claimants fell 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000 in the week ending July 17, partly reversing a jump of 41,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said.
The figures are frequently volatile in mid-summer when many automobile factories suspend operations to retool equipment. The date for retooling changes each year.
A four-week average of new unemployment benefit claims, which smoothes out some bumps in the weekly figures, fell 2,500 to 336,750.
In raw, unadjusted, figures, initial unemployment benefit claims slumped 52,393 to 391,807 in the week. There were 429,381 claims in the same period last year.
The existing pool of claimants -- those making claims for at least two weeks -- plunged by 167,000 people to 2.80 million in the week ending July 10, the latest date for which those numbers are available.