New jobless claims drop for third straight week

WASHINGTON (AP) — First-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week for the third straight time, a sign the job market is slowly recovering.

The Labor Department said today that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 444,000. That's above economists' forecasts of 440,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

Layoffs have dropped back to pre-recession levels and employers have slowly resumed hiring as the economy recovers from the worst recession since the 1930s.

That has brought claims down from a peak of 651,000 in March 2009. But many economists are concerned that claims haven't fallen faster this year. Instead, they have fluctuated around 450,000.

That's above the 425,000 level that many economists think claims need to drop below to signal sustained job growth.