The number of Americans seeking first-time jobless benefits fell last week, signaling a slow-down in layoffs as orders for big-ticket manufactured goods posted their strongest showing in April since the start of the recession, according to government reports released Thursday.
Meanwhile, new home sales were nearly flat in April, falling short of what many economists had forecast.
The latest data on unemployment and durable goods orders could indicate a rebound in the nation's flailing economy, which has been contracting since December 2007. Most economists now expect the recession to be over by the end of the 2009, making the current downturn the longest in decades.
The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from a revised figure of 636,000 in the previous week. That was below analysts' expectations of 635,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The total number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits increased to 6.78 million, the largest total on records dating back to 1967 and the 17th straight record week.
While auto-related layoffs had driven up claims in recent weeks, a Labor Department analyst said no states cited job cuts in that sector this week.
But even as Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. continued to struggle, demand for automobiles climbed 5.4 percent, leading a sharp increase in durable goods orders.
The Commerce Department said demand for big-ticket manufactured goods soared by the largest amount in 16 months in April, the second increase in the past three months.
April's report also revised downward the estimate for new orders in March to show a drop of 2.1 percent, a much bigger fall than the 0.8 percent decline previously reported.
Still, new orders have risen in two of the past three months after having recorded six straight declines. Analysts believe this could be signaling that the deep recession in manufacturing may be bottoming out. But they believe a sustained rebound is still some distance away.
Commerce also said that new home sales had risen by a meager 0.3 percent in April, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000 from a downwardly revised rate of 351,000 in March.
"The housing market remains very, very weak," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com told NPR. "But, sales are stabilizing."
Even so, the number of foreclosures has continued to rise dumping more houses on the market and driving down prices.
"The foreclosure problem is now the key problem for our economy and no relief in sight," Zandi said.
The median sales price fell to $209,700, a 14.9 percent drop from the same period a year ago.
From NPR reports and The Associated Press
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