IT seems financial meltdown in Washington (and other parts of the United States, at that) is slowly veering away as less and less Americans are getting fired by companies affected by the recession.

Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist of the Economic Outlook Group likewise enumerated several other indicators which tend to show gradual recovery of the US from the slump brought about by the global economic crisis. He said that every single indicator appears to lead to just one direction --- up.

Job-less claims at the lowest

Claims made by jobless Americans was pegged at the lowest level since January of this year, which means the number of people getting fired by companies, who can't seem to sustain the operational cost of running their business, is dropping.

However, the dip in the number of fired personnel making claims, does not seem indicative that companies are open to hiring or re-hiring.

As per data from the Labor Department, this week's number of "jobless claims" is 10,000 lower than that of last week which stood at 524,000. The figure also represents a discrepancy of 125,000 as compared to the figures posted in April, which stood at 639,000. This week's decline is actually the fifth in over six weeks, it was also learned.

Economists, however, remains observant on the benefit claims, which they described as instrumental in sizing up lay offs and an indicator as to whether or not companies are ready to hire new workers or re-hire laid-off personnel.

Business activities have started picking up although hiring new workers and re-hiring new ones remain a remote possibility at the moment --- not without adjusting prices of commodities if only to raise funds to defray the payment cost of additional employees.

Price of goods stays

On top of lesser benefit claims made by the jobless Americans, prices of household goods remained low.

Economists attribute the low prices of commodities of households to the low inflation level, which lures back the American market into shopping despite the tight credit conditions. Low inflation has always been expected of an economy gearing towards recovery.

For the last twelve months, prices of consumer products fell by 1.3 percent, banking mostly on inflation.

On top keeping the prices of commodities stable and affordable, there are many other market-related policies that the Federal government has been seriously studying in an apparent effort to get the American people back into the shopping mode.

Lower interest rates

Consistent with US government's agenda to get America out of the economic slump, Federal Reserve policymakers are also keeping interest rates low to allow struggling companies to recover from the adversities resulting from the global economic meltdown.

In fact, interest rates have fallen to a record low (closer to zero) since December. The economic turn out could best be attributed to the lack of inflation.

In keeping interest rates low (or almost zero), companies can actually avail of loans to avoid bankruptcy or closure, which is actually more damaging to the US economy considering an expected loss in revenues in form of taxes and additional markers to the number of unemployed Americans.

The federal government's drastic economic decisions also resulted "quite impressive" as indicated in the surge of the stock market. The US stock market is rising modestly. Dow Jones upped its industrial average even as broader indexes displayed positive indicators.

Jobless Americans

As per data posted in the net, a total of 7.2 Americans have lost their jobs since recession began in the late fourth quarter of last year. The number of laid-off American people represents 9.8 percent unemployment, which is actually the highest in 26 years.

But while figures on the number of American people now falling under the category of "unemployed" appears high, economists say that US should have less job losses starting this month. GP