The number of Americans filing unemployment insurance claims fell slightly last week for the first time in 20 weeks, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The report comes as a bit of good news amidst an ongoing economic recession. The department said that the number of claims for jobless benefits declined to a seasonally adjusted 621,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 625,000, which nearly matching analysts' expectations. The total jobless benefit fell by 15,000 to 6.7 million, the first drop since early January. Continuing claims had set record highs every week since the week ending on January 24. The continuing claims data lag initial claims by one week. Still, the number of initial claims remains stubbornly high, above the 605,000 level reached five weeks ago. That was the lowest level in 14 weeks. The four-week average of claims rose by 4,000 to 631,250. The report comes a day before the department is scheduled to release its unemployment report for May. Economists expect that report will show employers cut a net total of 520,000 jobs last month. The cuts come in addition to the 5.7 million jobs that have been lost since the recession began in December 2007. The unemployment rate also is set to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in April, analysts forecast.
