Number of people collecting unemployment insurance has dropped slightly for the first time in 5 months.

We are seeing more good news than bad news lately on the economic front.

The number of people collecting unemployment fell slightly for the first time in 20 weeks, while at the same time, the number of new jobless claims also went down slightly, the Department of Labor announced this morning.

The report could be characterized as modestly good news. Unemployment still remains high by historical standards, but a trend seeme to be developing that points towards an improving economy.

The Labor Department also said productivity was up in the first quarter more than previously estimated. Unfortunately, part of the reason for this was that layoffs had forced companies to make do with fewer employees to do the same amount of work.

First-time claims for jobless benefits declined to a seasonally adjusted 621,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 625,000, which was right in line with analysts expectations.

Total jobless benefit rolls, the number of people collecting unemployment,  fell by 15,000 to 6.7 million. This was the first drop since early January. Continuing claims had set record highs every week since the week ending Jan. 24. The continuing claims data lag initial claims by one week.