The unemployment insurance weekly claims report released this Thursday by the Department of Labor revealed a decrease in the number of filings for unemployment benefits from 456,000 claims to 445,000 for the week ending October 2nd. This decrease makes it four of the past five weeks that there have been fewer claims, a sign the Associated Press took in an article posted on the New York Times website to indicate that "layoffs are declining."

The 445,000 jobless benefit claims represented the "lowest level since coming in at 427,000 in the week ended July 10th," according to one source. While this is considered good news for the U.S. jobs market, the report also included rising figures for the number of people who have gone on extended benefits, increasing by about 250,000 in the week ending September 18th (the last time data was available) to just over 5 million people.