US Jobless Benefit Claims Drop for 4th Straight Week  

New claims for jobless benefits in the United States dropped for the fourth straight week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the world’s biggest economy continues its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.  

A total of 406,000 out-of-work employees filed for unemployment compensation, down 38,000 from the revised figure of the week before, the agency said. The figure was the lowest total since mid-March 2020 when the pandemic first swept into the country, although still nearly twice the pre-coronavirus weekly average of 218,000 in 2019.  More than half of U.S. adults have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, boosting the economic recovery, although the pace of inoculations has dropped from its peak a few weeks ago.  The continuing drop in the number of jobless benefit claims could presage more hiring, but U.S. employers only added 266,000 more jobs in April, down from the robust 916,000 figure in March. Nearly 10 million people remain officially unemployed in the U.S.