The Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week. The report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. MINOR INCREASE: Economists forecast that applications for unemployment benefits increased 22,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 320,000, according to a survey by FactSet. That would be up from 298,000 the previous week, which nearly the lowest in six years. FEWER LAYOFFS: Applications have fallen in seven of the past eight weeks and are back to pre-recession levels. Weekly unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs. The decline suggests ... (full story)