According to the Labor Department, claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to 366,000. The number of claims is consistent with the latter half of 2012. A report last week indicated that employers are seeing increased demand, and while they are not increasing hiring significantly, they are also not laying off workers. Productivity also fell, indicating that workers are reaching the limits of how productive they can be.
See "Fewer Workers Filed Claims for Jobless Benefits in U.S.", Alex Kowalski and Shobhana Chandra, Bloomberg News, February 6, 2013