WASHINGTON, Dec 7: The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week by the largest amount in six months, relieving worries about a big jump in claims in the previous week.

The total number of claims filed last week fell to 324,000, a decline of 34,000 from the previous week, the Labour Department reported Thursday. That represented the biggest one-week drop since the first week in June.

The decrease was in line with expectations of economists, who believed that an unexpectedly large jump of 35,000 claims the previous week was an aberration.

The four-week moving average for jobless claims edged up slightly to 328,750, the highest level since May, while the number of Americans receiving claims rose to 2.52 million, the highest level since January.

Even with those increases, analysts said the labour market appears to be withstanding this year's economic slowdown, which has been brought on by a big drop in the once-booming housing market and weakness in other areas such as auto sales.

Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital, said he believed that the underlying trends in the labour market remained solid although he cautioned that it would be difficult to interpret the weekly jobless claims numbers in coming weeks until the holidays were over.

—AP