New claims for unemployment benefits nationwide were unchanged last week, holding at the lowest level since the early days of the 2007-2009 recession and giving a fresh sign the battered labor market is healing.

Workers filed 351,000 initial claims for state unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

"It’s broadly in line with recent U.S. data showing a gradually improving economic backdrop," said Omer Esiner, a market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington.

The last two weekly readings have been the lowest since March 2008.

With weekly claims approaching levels last seen before the recession that began in December 2007, economists say employers might be close to ending a long cycle of heavy layoffs, laying the ground for more hiring.

Already, the jobless rate has fallen sharply, dropping to 8.3 percent in January from 9.1 percent in August.

Job gains have exceeded 200,000 for two straight months, and the jobless claims data from last week was taken from the sample period of the February payroll report, which could point to ongoing improvements in hiring.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has left benchmark interest rates near zero since December 2008 to coax companies into hiring, and the recent improvement in the labor market has dampened expectations of further monetary stimulus.