Jobless claims fell for the week ending March 9, with 322,000 U.S. citizens filing for unemployment, the Labor Department said.

Compared to the 342,000 claims filed a week earlier, unemployment benefit requests are down by 10,000 applications.

The number of citizens filing for unemployment within state programs reached a little over 3 million for the week ending March 2, decreasing 89,000 from 3.1 million a week earlier.

As a whole, 5.6 million people claimed unemployment benefits for the week ending Feb. 23, an increase of 217,967 filings from the previous week.

“The four-week average is now at its lowest level of the recovery, down 2,750 from the prior week to a 346,750 level that is a bit below the 350,000 trend of the month-ago comparison in what is an early positive indication for the March employment report,”  analysts with Econoday wrote.

Econoday added, “Strength in the labor market would explain ongoing signs of strength in other economic data, especially yesterday’s retail sales report. Today’s report is a major positive for today’s session.”