Jobless claims fall slightly but stay high

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits dropped a bit last week, but stayed high.

Last week's figure for initial unemployment claims was 423,000, a decline from the previous week's revised figure of 432,000, the Labor Department said. Still, the number is too high to offer hope that the broader unemployment rate-- currently at 9.1 percent--will start to drop significantly any time soon.