Ten months ago again, newly laid-off unemployment claims fell to their lowest level in close to a year, suggesting that the job market may be showing signs of life. It feels like today's situation is the same.

Of course, declining claims isn't the same as new hiring, but at least it suggests that the bleeding is slowing down. The new unemployment rate is due to be published in a few minutes, and economists expect the rate to rise to 9.9%, a hair over September's 9.8%.

First-time claims for jobless benefits fell last week, hitting the lowest level we've seen since January. The U.S. Department of Labor pegged the number at 521,000. This is down from the previous week's 554,000 (which had been revised upward). Wall Street economists anticipated 540,000. Claims of this type have fallen four times in five weeks, and the four-week average reached 539,750 – its lowest level since January 17, 2009.

In general, first-time claims for unemployment benefits have been declining since the spring, though slowly. Unfortunately, they still remain well above the 325,000 that economists claim to be indicative of a healthy economy.

The Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment rose to 551,000 from 534,000 in the previous week, much more than the 5,000 economists had expected. The number remaining on the rolls fell by 70,000 to 6.09 million, but this statistic likely is unreliable because of all the people who have exhausted their benefits.

Congress has added 53 weeks of benefits on top of the the usual 26 weeks. Now with thousands of people having exhausted their benefits, Congress is considering extending benefits for another 13 weeks.