Latest economic figures from the US show jobless insurance benefits plunging to their lowest level since September last year, according to official data.

With employment a key factor in the demand for office products, the latest figures provide some end-of-year optimism for American office supplies companies.

In a new forecast from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting earlier this month, the central bank said that participants anticipated gradual economic recovery from recession with the "unemployment rate declining slowly over the next few years." The forecast suggests that unemployment could ease in early 2010.