Applications for unemployment benefits dropped to an ultra-low 234,000 in the week that started April, the Department of Labor said Thursday in a better-than-expected report that suggests there is still momentum in the jobs recovery.

Thursday's jobless claims numbers were the lowest in five weeks and the second-lowest since November of 1973, when the workforce was much smaller.

The improvement was even better than private-sector forecasters' expectations, which were for claims to decline slightly after being driven higher the past two weeks, apparently, by big snowstorms on the East Coast.

Low jobless claims, which are adjusted for seasonal variations, are a good sign. If few people are showing up at state unemployment offices to apply for benefits, that usually suggests that layoffs are rare, and accordingly that job growth is strong.

Before Thursday's report, economists had tempered their expectations for the March jobs report set to be released Friday because of the possibility that March snowstorms seriously cut into job growth. The harsh winter weather likely meant that there would be 100,000 fewer jobs in March's report than if the weather had been normal, according to one estimate from researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Other than weather slowing down business, though, the trends from the jobless claims numbers are encouraging.

Over the past month, the average of total people receiving benefits, which are available up to 26 weeks in most states, was 2.02 million, the fewest since the dot-com bubble days of June 2000.