A previous headline misstated the level of jobless claims.

The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits after Christmas fell by 28,000 to the second-lowest level of the Obama era, hugging close to a 43-year low.

Initial claims sank to 235,000 from a revised 263,000, the government said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast initial claims to fall to a seasonally adjusted 260,000 in the week running from Dec. 25 to Dec. 31. See official U.S. jobless claims report.

New claims averaged 262,000 a week in the final year of the Obama presidency, the lowest average since 1973. And initial claims have been under 300,000 for 96 straight weeks, the longest stretch since 1970.

The low level of claims is largely the result of a ramp up in hiring over the past five years and a reluctance among companies to cut workers at a time when good help is hard to find. Millions of Americans have found work, pushing the unemployment rate below 5% and eliciting complaints among businesses about a shortage of skilled labor.

On Friday, the government is expected to report the economy added a solid 183,000 new jobs in December, according to the MarketWatch survey. Unemployment is likely to remain close to its current 4.6% national rate.

The sharp drop in claims last week, however, may have been exaggerated by the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Some people may have delayed filing claims because of the short week. If that is the case, new claims may rise in early 2017.

Claims usually swing up and down in the period that stretches from Thanksgiving to early January, as many Americans move in and out of the workforce during the holiday shopping season.

The less volatile four-week average of initial claims, meanwhile, declined by 5,750 to 256,750, the Labor Department said. The monthly figure is seen as a less volatile measure.

Continuing jobless claims rose 16,000 to 2.11 million in the week ended Dec. 24. These claims, reported with a one-week delay, reflect the number of people already collecting unemployment checks.