U.S. workers filing for unemployment drops by 30,000, 4 year-low

The number of workers in the United States who filed for unemployment last week dropped by 30,000, the highest drop in 4 years. The Labor Department said Thursday they expected the figure, which finished the week at 339,000, to have been higher.

In figures that were released last week, last month the unemployment number dropped below 8.0 percent to 7.8 percent and for the 31st consecutive month private industry jobs increased, with 114,000 jobs added in September. The figures on lower applications for unemployment from the Department of Labor, were for the week ending Oct. 6. “Maybe the unemployment rate drop wasn’t a fluke?” Robert Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics, was quoted by marketwatch.com on the decreased number of unemployment applications filed in relation the September's positive figures. While analysts were cautious about deducting too much from the figures on last week's unemployment applications, Gennadiy Goldberg from TD Securities told marketwatch "...we continue to note that trends in claims are looking more positive."