The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid plummeted last week to seasonally adjusted 339,000, the lowest level in more than four years. The sharp drop offered a hopeful sign that the job market could pick up. 
 
 In this Friday Sept. 28, 2012, photo, a group of veterans listen during a session with one of the employers at a job fair introducing veterans to careers in the security and private investigations industry... (Associated Press) 
 
 The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications fell by 30,000 to the fewest since February 2008. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped by 11,500 to 364,000, a six-month low. 
 
 The positive figures follow a report last week that said the unemployment rate fell in September to 7.8 percent. It was the first time since January 2009 that the rate dropped below 8 percent. 
 
 A Labor Department spokesman cautioned that the weekly applications can be volatile, particularly at the start of a quarter. And the spokesman said one large state accounted for much of the decline. The spokesman did not name the state. 
 
 Unemployment benefit applications are a proxy for layoffs. When they consistently drop below 375,000, it suggests that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. 
 
 Some economists said they want to see more data before suggesting the job market is turning around. 
 
 "Should this level hold for another week, it would flag a meaningful improvement in October" hiring, said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, in a note to clients. 
 
 Dan Greenhaus, chief market strategist at BTIG LLC, is also reserving judgment. "Are things that much better all of a sudden? Perhaps. We're going to wait for some corroborating data." 
 
 The total number of people receiving unemployment benefits also fell, the Labor Department said. A little more than 5 million Americans received benefits in the week ending Sept. 22, the latest data available. That's down about 44,000 from the previous week. 
 
 Last week's report noted that the unemployment rate declined to 7.8 percent in September from 8.1 percent in August because a government survey of households found that 873,000 more people had jobs. It was the biggest jump in nearly 10 years, although it was largely because of an increase in part-time employment. 
 
 Still, a separate survey of businesses showed that employers added only 114,000 jobs in September. That's generally enough to keep pace with population growth but not enough to rapidly bring relief to more than 12 million who are unemployed. 
 
 Hiring over the summer was stronger than previously estimated. The economy gained an average of 146,000 jobs a month in the July-September quarter. That's more than double the monthly pace in the April-June quarter. 
 
 Another report Wednesday suggested hiring will likely remain modest. Employers posted slightly fewer open jobs in August compared with July, the Labor Department said. It was the second straight monthly drop and the fewest openings since April. 
 
 A key problem is the economy is not growing fast enough to generate much hiring. Growth slowed to a tepid annual rate of 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter, down from 2 percent in the previous quarter. Most economists see growth staying at or below 2 percent in the second half of the year. ||||| WASHINGTON | 
 
 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jobs growth likely cooled in August with the elevated unemployment rate remaining stuck as businesses worried over an uncertain economic outlook, an outcome that could potentially seal the case for a further easing of monetary policy. 
 
 Employers are expected to have increased payrolls by 125,000 workers last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists, a step down from July's 163,000-job gain. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 8.3 percent. 
 
 The fresh U.S. jobs tally will be released on Friday at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT), a week after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke left the door wide open to more monetary stimulus and described the labor market's stagnation as a "grave concern." 
 
 Bernanke's comments raised expectations among economists that the U.S. central bank would decide to pump more money into the sluggish economy at its September 12-13 meeting through a third round of bond purchases. 
 
 "The report would probably have to be very strong to dissuade the Fed from acting, with payrolls coming in well north of 150,000 and the unemployment rate dipping," said Jeremy Lawson, a senior economist at BNP Paribas in New York. 
 
 "And even then policymakers could take the view that healthy employment growth is unlikely given the current outlook for (economic) growth." 
 
 While the economy has experienced three years of growth since the 2007-09 recession, the expansion has not been vigorous and the jobless rate has held above 8 percent for more than three years -- the longest stretch since the Great Depression. 
 
 The economy grew at an average annual pace of 1.8 percent over the first half of 2012. A sustained growth rate of about 2.5 percent or higher for several quarters would be required to significantly reduce unemployment. 
 
 The unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, but progress reducing it stalled this year, which could spell trouble for President Barack Obama when Americans go to the polls in November. 
 
 Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney are in a dead heat in the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Sunday. 
 
 "You are not going to get a strong enough payroll clip to meaningfully move the unemployment rate," said Brian Levitt, an economist at OppenheimerFunds in New York. "You would need to have far greater than 100,000 jobs to have a meaningful impact." 
 
 FISCAL CLIFF, EUROPE BLAMED 
 
 Hiring has cooled significantly to an average of 105,000 per month over the last three months from 226,000 in the January-March period. Economists blame fears of the so-called U.S. fiscal cliff -- the $500 billion or so in expiring tax cuts and government spending reductions scheduled to take hold at the start of next year -- and Europe's long-running debt problems. 
 
 Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York, said those factors have led businesses to postpone investment decisions and were likely weighing on hiring as well. 
 
 "Companies are delaying all that stuff given the uncertainty about the fiscal cliff and the global economy. They don't want to add too much to their books, neither capital nor workers," he said. 
 
 First-time applications for jobless benefits were mostly elevated in August and a gauge of factory employment fell to its lowest level since November 2009, signs the labor market continues to struggle. 
 
 Economists expect manufacturing payrolls to show only a modest gain in August, arguing that factory jobs in July were inflated because automobile manufacturers kept plants running when they would normally shut them for retooling. 
 
 Little improvement is expected in construction employment, where homebuilders have been breaking ground on new projects at a slightly faster clip this year. 
 
 Elsewhere, a slowdown in temporary hiring in July could have translated into softer professional and business services hiring in August. But utilities payrolls should see a snap back after being depressed by the strike of about 9,000 workers in July. 
 
 Government payrolls are a wild card. Economists at JPMorgan predict education employment will show a softer increase in August after rising 18,000 in July. They viewed the increase in July as payback from a weak June number and expect government payrolls contracted 10,000 last month. 
 
 But Moody's Analytics believes government employment rose by 5,000 in August, which would be only the third monthly gain since 2011. They noted both that government payrolls tend to rise in August and that there were five weeks between the July and August employment report survey periods, which could introduce an upward bias. 
 
 Average hourly earnings are expected to have risen 0.2 percent last month after a 0.1 percent gain in July. The average work week is seen steady at 34.5 hours. The average work week has hovered around 34.5 hours this year and hours in most industries are back to pre-recession levels. 
 
 (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Chizu Nomiyama)
– The unemployment rate ticked down from 5.9% to 5.8% last month, its lowest level since July 2008, the AP reports. And 214,000 jobs were added; 233,000 had been expected, per the Wall Street Journal's forecast, with the unemployment rate expected to stick at 5.9%. August and September numbers were also revised upward: August saw 203,000 new jobs added (up from 180,000), and September saw 256,000 (up from 248,000). That means the economy has added 200,000 or more jobs per month for nine consecutive months, the longest stretch since 1995, the AP notes. Even though the new jobs number for October doesn't look great when compared to what was expected, the AP points out that it extends "the healthiest pace of hiring in eight years." And Michael J. Casey at the Journal explains why today's jobs report is actually pretty good news: "Unemployment dropped, including in the U-6 broader measure of joblessness. And it came with a higher participation rate. Along with the upward revision in the September payrolls number, all of this means the net takeaway ain't as bad as the headline jobs number suggests."