A Labor Department report on Feb. 3, showed that the number of Americans filing new weekly jobless claims fell 23,000 to 238,000, more than expected last week, as the Omicron variant subsided, a second straight weekly decline. Economists polled by Reuters had earlier forecast 245,000 jobless benefit applications. Jobless applications fell sharply in Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois, offsetting rises in Michigan, California, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Continuing claims meanwhile have dropped 44,000 to 1.628 million. Claims have dropped from a record high of 6.149 million in early April 2020. The fall in unemployment benefit claims suggests that the slowdown in job growth caused by the virus was likely temporary, after a recent surge in claims in mid-January, which had boosted initial claims to a three-month high. The number of infectious cases fell to under 400,000 new cases a day, about half of what it was just weeks ago. The government will release …