The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined slightly last week, after rising to a 2-month high a week earlier, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits was 382,000 in the week ended Sept. 15, down 3, 000 from the previous week's upwardly revised figure.

However, the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility, increased for the fifth consecutive week to 377,750.

The number of jobless claims has to drop below 375,000 to indicate a sustained drop in the country's unemployment rate. Economists say that the latest figure of jobless claims suggests the U.S. labor market is healing, but the pace of improvement is not fast enough to drag down the unemployment rate.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ended Sept. 8 was 3.304 million, down 32,000 from the prior week.

In August, U.S. employers only added 96,000 jobs, far less than an average of over 220,000 in the first three months this year. The unemployment rate last month dropped to 8.1 percent, but that was mainly because fewer people were looking for jobs.

To boost the anemic economic growth and the labor market, the U. S. Federal Reserve last Thursday announced a new round of bond buying and other stimulus measures. But many economists believe that the central bank's moves might fail to deliver the target of bolstering the economic recovery.