WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits fell below 300,000 for the third time in five weeks, signaling layoffs are at a postrecession low amid an uptick in hiring in most major U.S. industries.

Initial jobless claims declined by 14,000 to 298,000 in the week of Aug. 10 to Aug. 16, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected claims to drop to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 from a slightly revised 312,000 in the prior week.

The average of new claims over the past month, a less erratic number that offers a better look at underlying labor-market trends, climbed by 4,750 to 300,750. Although that’s a four-week high, the monthly average is still near the lowest level in eight years.

Initial jobless claims are a gauge of whether layoffs are rising or falling and changes in the number of people seeking benefits tend to correlate over time with how many jobs the economy is producing.

In the first half of 2014, the U.S. posted its best stretch of job creation since the recession ended five years ago. The unemployment rate has also fallen sharply over the past year to 6.2%, while job openings are the highest since 2001.

The U.S. economy, however, has yet to recover all its vigor from the pre-recession years. The nation’s unemployment, for instance, was 5% the last time claims were this low.

What’s more, a large chunk of new jobs are part time or are in lower-paying industries. Slow wage growth has crimped how much consumers spend, a chief reason why the economy is still expanding well below its historical norm.

Meanwhile, the government said continuing claims decreased by 49,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.5 million in the week ended Aug. 9. Continuing claims reflect the number of people already receiving benefits.

Initial claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 312,000 from 311,000.