The labor market is gradually strengthening, with an average of over 200,000 new jobs added each month from January to April this year. In April, 288,000 new jobs were added, the largest increase since January 2012.
The unemployment rate last month also fell to 6.3%, down from 6.7% at the end of 2013. The withdrawal of some individuals from the labor force has also contributed to the decline in the unemployment rate.
Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Janet Yellen stated on Wednesday that the labor market has shown "significant" improvement, though she also noted that the situation is still far from satisfactory.
The Federal Reserve has been consistently tapering its monetary stimulus measures and is expected to conclude its monthly bond-buying program by the end of 2014. However, the Fed is not expected to begin raising its benchmark interest rate, which is currently near zero, until the second half of 2015.
Analysts state that given the downward trend in initial jobless claims at the beginning of May, it is highly likely that another 200,000-plus jobs will be added this month. "In fact, we expect initial jobless claims to fall to the 300,000 level in the coming weeks, which is generally consistent with sustained job growth of 200,000 to 225,000."
The jobless claims report shows that the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits for the week ending April 26 decreased by 76,000 to 2.69 million. During the same period, the insured unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 2%.
Since August of last year, the insured unemployment rate had rebounded to around 2.2%. This data reflects the number of people unemployed for less than 26 weeks. The decline in this figure indicates that the short-term unemployment rate continues its downward trend.
