Remember Bush's "jobless recovery"? This bland "report" is what poses as journalism today-----US weekly unemployment benefit claims drop to 326k

Nothing to see here folks...... just a bunch of numbers......read it all and know the MSM cares not for the unemployed.
US weekly unemployment benefit claims drop to 326k - The Denver Post:
WASHINGTON—The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 2,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, a sign that layoffs are weighing less on the job market and economic growth.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average dropped 13,500 to 335,000.

....The job market had picked up toward the end of last year before losing some momentum in December. A mere 74,000 jobs were created last month, after the economy added an average of 213,500 new jobs in the previous four months.

Many economists blamed the slowdown in hiring on bad weather and statistical quirks, and projected stronger gains in the new year.

"Hiring indicators are almost uniformly quite strong, and we think the underlying trend in payroll growth likely has picked up, despite the fluke slowing in December," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The unemployment rate fell last month to 6.7 percent from 7 percent in November. Much that decrease came from 347,000 unemployed workers leaving the workforce. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are looking for work.

The expiration of long-term benefits could lead to further declines in the unemployment rate, perhaps as much as a quarter of percentage point in early 2014. That's because many of the former recipients will give up on job searches, which are required in order to receive benefits.