Official figures show that new US claims for unemployment benefits dipped further last week, showing more improvement in the country's troubled jobs market.
Initial jobless claims fell by 15,000 to 358,000 in the week ending February 4 from the previous week's slightly upwardly revised reading, the Labor Department said. Wall Street economists had expected a higher figure of 370,000.
The four-week moving average for new claims, seen as a better measure of labour market trends, fell 11,000 to 366,250 - the lowest level since April 2008.
The claims data pointed to building strength in the US labour market. The economy has had two straight months of job gains above 200,000 and the unemployment rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.3% in January.
Last week's decline in both new applications for jobless benefits and the four-week average pushed them closer to the 350,000 mark that economists say would signal sustained labour market strength.
Despite the continued improvement, the labour market recovery still has a long away to go. About 23.8 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed and there is no job for nearly three out of every four unemployed people.
