In an upbeat sign for the job market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by much more than anticipated in the week ended February 23rd.

The report said initial jobless claims dropped to 344,000, a decrease of 22,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 366,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 360,000 from the 362,000 originally reported for the previous week.