New applications for unemployment benefits fell dramatically to its lowest level in 14 weeks, according to a Labor Department report released on Thursday. The Department report showed that the fall may signal that the massive layoffs that were previously commonplace have slowed, though the number of unemployed workers getting benefits climbed to a new record high. The report showed that the number newly laid off workers applying for benefits dropped to 601,000 last week. That was far better than the rise to 635,000 claims that economists expected. But the total number of people receiving jobless benefits climbed to 6.35 million, a 14th straight record. The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims totaled 623,500 last week, a decrease of more than 30,000 from the high in early April. Goldman Sachs economists have said a decline of 30,000 to 40,000 in the four-week average is needed to signal a peak. In a separate report, the government said that productivity, the key ingredient to rising living standards, grew at a 0.8 percent annual rate in the January to March quarter, slightly better than the 0.6 percent increase that economists had expected. Wage pressures, as measured by unit labor costs, increased at a 3.3 percent rate, down from a 5.7 percent spike in the fourth quarter.
