The number of Americans signing up for unemployment compensation dropped slightly last week.

Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed a decline of 6,000 first-time applications.

The decrease leaves the nationwide total of people applying for jobless aid at 422,000, higher than the level seen in a healthy job market.

Government experts plan to publish the unemployment rate for May on Friday. Economists surveyed by news organizations predict the unemployment rate will decline slightly and hit 8.9 percent.

Economists also expect the U.S. economy will show a net gain of 150,000 jobs in May.

A separate report Thursday showed that the productivity of U.S. workers grew in the first few months of this year, but the growth was slower than that seen in the last few months of 2010.