It's not as good as a job, but those who were on the brink of running out of unemployment benefits can breathe a little easier now. The Senate on Thursday reached a deal that will extend jobless benefits, yet again.

The number of newly laid-off workers filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by an unexpectedly large amount, in weekly numbers released by the Labor Department on Thursday. With that, the numbers fell to the lowest level since early January.

The number of new jobless claims dropped for the third consecutive week. The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 530,000 from an upwardly revised 551,000 the previous week.

Initial filings for unemployment insurance fell by 12,000 last week, from 557,000 to 545,000. That is the good news. Unfortunately, the bad news is that the number of continuing jobless claims keeps growing.

Good news and bad news, with respect to the unemployment numbers for May released today by the U.S. Labor Department. First, the bad news: unemployment has reached 9.4%. Now, the good news: the pace of layoffs slowed, with employers cutting 345,000 jobs, the fewest since September.

For the first time in 20 weeks, the number of those still seeking unemployment benefits (as opposed to new claims) dropped, albeit slightly. This also broke a string of 17 consecutive weeks with record new highs in this number.

Trending good news appears to not be something we're going to have happen, at least not soon. While last week's new jobless numbers were better than expected, this week's were worse than expected.

While last week's jobless numbers for new claims showed improvement, this week's took an unexpectedly high jump, according to the Labor Department.

The Labor Department report on Friday was grim: the U.S. lost 598,000 in January and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6%. This is its highest level in more than 16 years.

Merry Christmas. Now clean out your desk. On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, new government data showed the number of U.S. jobless claims jumped 30,000 to a 26-year high last week.