The Labor Department says 422,000 Americans filed for their first
week of unemployment benefits the week ended May 28. While that
marked a 6,000 decrease from the revised 428,000 initial claims
filed the week before, it was worse than economists' expectations
for 413,000 claims. Economists use initial jobless claims as a
way to gauge the strength of the job market, but for the last
eight weeks, the number has stayed stubbornly high above the
400,000 mark. Even in times of robust economic growth, it's not
uncommon to have initial claims tally in the 200,000 to 300,000
range. But many economists say once that number is persistently
in the 400,000s, job growth is probably too weak to put a dent in
the unemployment rate.

The number of Americans filing for ongoing claims fell 1,000 to
3,711,000 in the week ended May 21, the latest data available.
Wisconsin, South Carolina, Massachusetts and California had the
largest increases in initial claims during that week, citing
layoffs in the services industry. Alabama and Oregon saw the
biggest improvement. Next up is the government's monthly jobs
report due Friday. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney say they're
expecting to see that 170,000 jobs were created in May and that
the unemployment rate eased to 8.9% from 9% in April.