Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing first- time claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week to 312,000, the second decline in three weeks, as improving sales for automakers, retailers and manufacturers prompt employers to retain workers.

Initial jobless claims fell 1,000 from 313,000 in the week ended July 23, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 316,750 from 319,000.

A separate Labor Department report tomorrow is expected to show employers added 180,000 workers in July, the most in three months. Benefit claims tend to fall as the economy creates jobs, and claims this year dropped to a weekly average of 325,500 from 343,000 in the same period of 2004. Companies are holding on to workers as factories receive more orders, construction grows and retail sales advance, economists said.

``This suggests that some of those other signs of a pickup, like the recent services numbers and auto sales, are translating very quickly into job gains,'' said Lynn Reaser, senior economist at Banc of America Securities LLC in Boston, before the report.

Claims were projected to rise to 315,000, the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 39 economists, from an originally estimated 310,000. Forecasts ranged from 305,000 to 325,000.

Economic Growth

Most parts of the U.S. economy are performing well, recent reports show, pointing to an improving labor market. U.S. services industries, which represent almost 90 percent of the economy, expanded for a 28th consecutive month in July, the Institute for Supply Management reported yesterday. U.S. auto sales recorded their second-best month ever in July because of discount pricing.

Manufacturing reports in the last month from the supply management institute and from Federal Reserve Banks in Chicago, Philadelphia and New York all showed improved results.

The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits decreased to 2.581 the week ended July 23 from 2.599 million a week earlier. The insured employment rate, which tends to track the U.S. jobless rate, was unchanged from the prior week at 2 percent. The Labor Department said 48 states and territories reported fewer claims, while four had more. These data are reported with a one-week lag.

New Jobs

Many of the new jobs are in construction, supporting home sales that are forecast to set a fifth straight annual record, according to the National Association of Realtors. Construction employment expanded by 151,000 jobs during the first six months of this year, compared with 277,000 jobs for all of 2004, when the economy added 2.2 million new jobs.

Hiring has also increased at businesses that order office supplies from Staples Inc., the retailer's chief executive, Ron Sargent, said in a July 28 interview. First small- and medium- sized businesses began hiring and now larger companies are adding workers, he said.

``People are going back to work,'' said Sargent, whose company is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. ``They started going back to work for small businesses, then medium business, and now even Fortune 1,000s seem to be hiring.''

Some companies continue to eliminate workers to cut costs and improve competitiveness. Eastman Kodak Co., the world's largest photography company, said on July 20 it will eliminate as many as 10,000 jobs in the U.S. and overseas as it shifts production to digital imaging from film.

``What we're trying to do is not only reduce our manufacturing capacity, but as well do it in an effective way,'' said Antonio Perez, president of the Rochester, New York-based company, on a conference call.

Payrolls

The government may report tomorrow that non-farm payrolls rose in July by the most since April, according to a separate Bloomberg News survey. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 5 percent.

Jobless claims of around 320,000 are consistent with monthly payroll gains of about 180,000, according to Reaser. The U.S. economy needs to create about 150,000 jobs a month to keep pace with new workers entering the labor force, she said.

Annual retooling in the auto industry did not skew the claims numbers last week because statisticians accurately adjusted for changes, a Labor Department spokesman said.

Jobless claims can be erratic in June and July because government statisticians have trouble adjusting for temporary plant shutdowns by automakers such as General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. as they upgrade factories to produce new models. ``Much of the swing in claims over the last few weeks has been related to continued distortions from the auto-retooling period,'' said Mike Englund, chief U.S. economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado. The model-year changeovers are now ``winding down,'' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington bwillis@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 4, 2005 08:30 EDT