Although fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, economic reports still point to weak job growth.
    
The U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday that the number of jobless benefit applications fell by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 422,000 - the third drop in four weeks.

However, economists anticipate May's job report, due out Friday, will show hiring slowed down in April.

"Fears will grow that the economy is not just showing slower growth, but actually flattening," Pierre Ellis, an economist at Decision Economics, wrote in a note to clients.