The number of people in the US who claimed for jobless benefits saw a decrease last week as figures hit their lowest level in over three years, with the employment market in the country continuing to recover.

New applications for unemployment compensation dropped in the last week to 366,000, representing a decline of 19,000 on the week prior, and was considerably lower than the predicted 390,000 applications for the week.

The figures are also the lowest level sinceMay 2008, when the country was in the midst of its recession, and sit well below the 400,000 mark, a number usually associated with an employment market which is on the increase.

Economist Andrew Grantham at CIBC World Markets: "You have to be careful about reading too much into any one week of data, but it's very encouraging."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that the level of unemployment across the country had dropped by 0.4 per cent in November.

Posted by Alex Donnell