Fewer People Requesting Unemployment Insurance

New information released by The Labor Department says that new claims for unemployment benefits have dropped for the fourth week in a row. It’s a sign, some experts say, that the job market is showing improvement. The unemployment claims dropped by 4,000 last week, according to Yahoo! Finance. The four-week average for unemployment benefit claims fell by 9,000 to 450,500. Last year’s peak was 651,000. The number of people receiving unemployment benefits increased by 12,000 to 4.6 million. Another 5.4 million are receiving extended benefits, which is down 200,000 compared to the week prior.

Employers are beginning to hire again, but slowly. “We expect claims to continue to move lower over the coming weeks and will feel more comfortable about the prospects for sustainable job creation when claims drop below the 400,000 mark,” economists at RDQ Economics said in a note to clients, according to Yahoo! Finance. US employers added about 290,000 jobs in April which is the most in a single month in four years. But experts say a lot of ground needs to be covered to make up for the more than 8 million estimated jobs lost during the recession.

Cisco Systems, Inc is one of the companies that’s hiring. CEO John Chambers said this week that they hired 1,000 new people in the first quarter, a pace he expects to pick up, according to Yahoo! Finance. Other companies are still downsizing. Dean Foods Co, the company behind Horizon Organic milk, announced it plans to eliminate at least 350 jobs. The company already let 150 people go this year.