US unemployment applications held steady last week

The United States Department of Labor reported today 374,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.

The Associated Press says this number suggests "slow improvement in the job market." 

Reuters, however, says this points to "a labor market that was treading water."

Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, told the Associated Press that "job growth continued in August, but at a slower rate than July’s pop. So job growth there shall be, but not strong enough."

Job growth has been sluggish these past few months. The US added 163,000 jobs in July. The unemployment rate ticked up just a bit from 8.2 to 8.3 percent.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has decreased, the Labor Department reported. However, this is not necessarily a positive sign.

Sure, some people are finding and keeping jobs. But some have also used up all their unemployment benefits. They only last so long. And then that's it.