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The number of Americans filing new聽claims聽for聽jobless聽benefits fell to a 14-year low last week, a positive signal that could counter doubts over whether the economy is shifting into a higher gear.

Initial聽claims聽for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 264,000, the lowest level since 2000, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

The decline suggests the labor market is gaining steam even as worries grow that the economy will not be strong enough for the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates around the middle of next year.

Weak retail sales data on Wednesday shook investor convictions over the path of Fed policy and helped fuel a global sell-off in financial markets that continued on Thursday. U.S. stock futures declined even after the聽claimsdata.

The report nonetheless reinforces expectations that slack in the labor market is being reduced, which would push the Fed closer to raising rates.

"Have we achieved full employment? Not yet. Are we getting closer? Absolutely," said聽Stephen Stanley, an economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities.

The jobless claims report comes a day after the White House released an upbeat fact sheet on long-term unemployment. The percentage of Americans who have been jobless for six months or more has fallen to 2.5 percent in December to 1.9 percent last month, a decrease of 900,000. 聽As the Monitor reported Wednesday, such strides on the employment front could be good news for Democrats in upcoming midterm elections:聽

Accounting for the job-market gains isn鈥檛 as simple as a pro or con political slogan.

For one thing, the adage that 鈥渢ime heals all wounds鈥� often applies to economies. One would expect the job market to be better five years after a recession, even if the response by policymakers was somewhat flawed.

Another factor worth noting is that the lingering challenges for the unemployed are larger than the official numbers portray. Many economists believe that a sizable number of Americans 鈥� as many as 2 million 鈥� have become too discouraged to look for work, and so aren鈥檛 even counted as unemployed.

A final caveat to the 鈥減rogress鈥� story: The jobs recovery has been slow 鈥� slower than in many past rebounds and slower than the Obama administration itself expected in 2009.

All this said, it鈥檚 undeniable that the job market has improved considerably 鈥� and that the conditions confronting Obama and other policymakers were unusually tough. The 2007-09 contraction hasn鈥檛 been named the Great Recession for nothing.

In surveys,聽聽one key, early Obama step: the large stimulus package including tax cuts and government spending on things like infrastructure and aid to hard-hit states.

Since 2010, Obama has sought additional infrastructure spending and additional help for the long-term unemployed, but Republicans in Congress haven鈥檛 signed off on such moves. (Congress halted an extended unemployment benefit for the long-term jobless at the end of last year.)

In an聽, 34 percent of business economists saw policy on taxes and spending as 鈥渢oo restrictive鈥� for the economy, while 22 percent saw policy as too stimulative. The rest saw fiscal policy as about right, the National Association for Business Economics survey found.

This doesn鈥檛 mean that economists see all of Obama鈥檚 policies as great for growth.

Republicans criticize the president for not cutting a deal to reform the tax code 鈥� especially to help attract more business investment to US shores. They say he should be doing more to promote the growth of jobs in the energy industry. And they say he has piled more regulations on the economy rather than reducing them.

U.S. stock futures were pointing to a lower open on Thursday. The S&P 500 index on Wednesday closed at its lowest level in six months.

While the spike in layoffs during the 2007-2009 recession is decidedly in聽America's rear-view mirror, the pace of hiring has only increased modestly over the last year and the聽jobless聽rate remains elevated at 5.9 percent.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast聽claims聽rising to 290,000 for the week ended Oct. 11.

The four-week moving average of聽claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 4,250 to 283,500, also its lowest level since 2000.

The Labor Department said there were no special factors influencing the state level聽claims聽data.

The report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose 7,000 to 2.39 million in the week ended Oct. 4. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Paul Simao)