New Jobless Claims Drop for Third Straight Week

That said, it's still not evidence of a healthy economy. The number of new jobless claims for such an economy would be around 325,000, analysts say.

The same as last week, analysts had expected claims to rise by 5,000. The four-week moving average, which levels out fluctuations, dropped to 553,500.

While this is good news of a sort, those who are unemployed continue to have issues finding jobs. This is clear by looking at the total of those continuing to be unmployed. Congress has added up to 53 extra weeks of benefits on top of the 26 typically provided by the states. The House this week approved legislation that would add another 13 weeks in states with higher unemployment figures.

When those programs are included, the total number of jobless benefit recipients was about 9 million in the week that ended Sept. 5. While down slightly from the previous week, the large number of people remaining on the rolls shows that employers may be slowing firings, but they aren't hiring either.