US stats signal recovery underway for jobs market
MORE green shoots of recovery have sprouted in the US labour market, according to the latest data, while the slumping factory sector showed dramatic signs of improvement and a gauge of the overall economy also jumped.
The number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week but the number of people staying on the benefit rolls after collecting an initial week of aid fell for the first time since January, a government report showed.
Manufacturing in the US Mid-Atlantic area contracted in June for the ninth consecutive month but much less severely than expected and far less than in the previous month, a regional Fed survey showed. The reading on the Philadelphia Federal Reserve business activity index was the highest since September 2008, while further evidence the recession is fading came from the Conference Board’s forward-looking measure.