The Associated Press reports that the number of jobless claims received this week dropped to 323,000, the lowest since June 2008. The news comes one day before the August jobs report will be released, and economists are predicting that employers added 177,000 last month. This would be an increase of 15,000 jobs compared to July and would keep the unemployment rate at 7.4 percent.

 

Jobless claim applications are used in job reports to represent layoffs. They have decreased by five percent in the last two months. There is concern that while there are fewer layoffs, the hiring rate has not picked up to pre-recession levels. Many of the jobs added this summer have been low-paying, part-time retail jobs, while higher-paying blue collar job sectors such as manufacturing have not picked up their hiring rates. Still, there is hope that blue collar hiring could soon increase, as a private survey released this week showed that factory activity grew in August at the fastest pace in over two years.

 

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