In the latest positive sign for the U.S. labor market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased in the week ended March 9th.

The report showed that initial jobless claims fell to 332,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 342,000. The drop came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to rise to 350,000 from the 340,000 originally reported for the previous week.