The latest weekly initial jobless claims report revealed a pandemic-era low, the Labor Department reported Thursday, in another sign that the U.S. economy is slowly recovering.

Claims fell to 360,000 from 364,000 during the Independence Day weekend. Continuing claims have also fallen from 3.47 million to 3.24 million in the same span.

As the country recovers from the 1 1/2-year health crisis, those receiving pandemic-related benefits have fallen from 14.66 million to 14.2 million. Slow progress is still being made as the total was 33.2 million just a year ago.

Multiple states have ended enhanced benefits provided since the early days of the pandemic. Federal benefits are set to expire in September as economists anticipate a sharp increase of new workers back into jobs.

Labor force participation has dropped 2.7% since February of 2020, and the total number of workers on unemployment is more than 3.7 million higher than the pre-pandemic level.

The employment index has also increased from 20.6% to 29.5% of companies saying they will hire more employees. A forward-looking index has shown a hiring increase of 43.9%, up 2.2 points since June.

A report from the Fed’s “Beige Book” has said economic conditions across the country have shown “moderate to robust growth” while business contacts were “increasingly optimistic about the near-term outlook.”

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