Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, reducing the average number of weekly applications last month to a five-year low, the government said Thursday. According to the Labor Department, applications fell 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 332,000, which cut the four-week average to 346,750, the lowest since March 2008. The report "provides further evidence of a gradual strengthening in labor market conditions," Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients. Applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, have fallen almost 13 percent since November. Meanwhile, net hiring has picked up. Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs per month from November through February, up from roughly 150,000 a month in the previous four months. The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7 percent in February from 7.9 percent the previous month. Roughly 5.6 million people received benefits in the week ended February 23, the latest data available. That was 220,000 more than the previous week. The improvement in the job market conveys that employers are not laying off more workers because of worries about higher taxes or government spending cuts.
