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US unemployment benefit applications likely fell last week
The Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Thursday. APPLICATIONS DOWN: The expectation is that the number of people filing for benefits dipped to 277,000 last week, a drop of 4,000 from the previous week, according to a survey of economists by data firm FactSet. JOB MARKET: The labor market has been posting solid employment gains although it has not fully recovered from the two-year recession that ended in 2009. The government reported last week that the unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3 percent in June while employers ... (full story)