Fewer Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments last week, Bloomberg News reported, marking the third decrease in the past four weeks and indicating progress in the labor market.

The Department of Labor reported 16,000 fewer applications for jobless benefits in the period ended March 12, compared with the previous week. The total was 385,000, in line with the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, Labor Department figures showed today.

The four-week average of claims dropped to the lowest level since July 2008. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls fell, but those getting extended payments rose.

Fewer firings along with increased hiring and a lower unemployment rate could help lift household spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Federal Reserve policy- makers this week said the expansion is getting stronger and the labor market is “improving gradually.”

“We’ve seen a marked decline in initial jobless claims since the beginning of the year,” Scott Anderson, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Minneapolis, said before the report. “The fact that claims have moved to a lower threshold certainly suggests we’re getting a broadening out of job creation, if not a strengthening in job creation.”