Fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time claims forunemployment insurance payments last week, easing concern that thelabor market was deteriorating.

Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 14,000 in theweek ended June 30 to 374,000, the fewest since mid-May, LaborDepartment figures showed today. Economists forecast 385,000claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg Newssurvey. A Labor Department spokesman said there was nothing unusualin the data.

Fewer firings help pave the way for faster job creation whencompanies grow more confident about the economic outlook. A reporttomorrow may show the world's largest economy added 90,000 jobs inJune, capping a second quarter where employment growth slowed tohalf the pace of the prior three months.