The total amount of U.S. workers that filed new unemployment claims fell last week, but not by very much. Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 11,000 to 457,000 in the week ended July 24. This comes a week after the total had risen.

Most forecasters predicted that the jobless claims would decline this week, but not quite as much as they did. Even though the number of initial claims declined, the total number of individuals who are claiming benefits continued to rise. With the increase in unemployment, comes the decrease in consumer spending which directly effects the economy as a whole. The recovery is coming along, but at a very slow pace. Some economists believe that the recovery will come to a standstill sometime during the second half of 2010.

With initial claims for unemployment decreasing more than forecasters had expected this week, stock futures saw a slight surge before the market opened.