New Claims for Jobless Benefits Drop 9% : Economy: Major retailers turn in mixed reports on April sales.

In a sign that the nation’s recession might be easing, the Labor Department on Thursday said the weekly rate of new unemployment insurance claims dropped by a substantial 9% in late April.

And in separate reports Thursday, the nation’s major retailers reported mixed April sales figures. Still, many economists remained hopeful that a recovery is slowly in the making.

“We are slowly but surely creeping toward the end of the recession,” said Irwin L. Kellner, economist at Manufacturers Hanover Trust. “But it does not mean the recession is over. There are still a lot of people who are losing their jobs.”

The number of new applications for state unemployment insurance during the week ending April 27 fell by 45,000 to 455,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department reported. The number of workers receiving unemployment insurance during the week ended April 20 stood at 3,506,000--a decrease of 39,000 from the previous week.

“I certainly think that there is a hint in these numbers that maybe the recession is beginning to bottom out,” said David M. Jones, chief economist at Aubrey G. Lanston & Co., an investment firm. “But in no way do they suggest that a recovery is under way. It will be a difficult recovery. It will be slow. It will be uneven.”

The weekly rate has seen marked changes in recent weeks, primarily as a result of layoffs and recalls in the auto industry, say government officials. The weekly rate had been climbing earlier in the month and had reached a peak of 543,000 for the week ending March 23 before falling back.

Despite the decrease in new claims, the weekly rate remains above the 400,000 mark--which some economists say indicates a recessionary environment--and well ahead of the approximately 360,000 new weekly claims filed during April, 1990.

The average rate during the four weeks ending April 27 stood at 476,000--down from 511,250 in the previous period. However, the four-week average fell in January before climbing again in February.

This time around, however, economists note that the weekly decline in unemployment filings falls in line with other recent economic data that seem to indicate that the recession has hit bottom.

“The numbers show that the decline has ended,” said Gail D. Fosler, chief economist at the Conference Board, a business research group in New York. “But, we would have to see 400,000 to 450,000 claims a week before we could say conclusively that there was an improvement.”

The picture in retail sales is murkier, with major store chains reporting a range of results, mostly weak gains or decreases. The exception was Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, where same-store sales in April rose 11% from the same month a year ago.