Fewer Americans sought unemployment last week and the average number of applications in the past month fell to an eight year low. The Labor Department said on Thursday when it released its latest figures that weekly applications fell 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 287,000 in the week ending Oct. 4. It is the fourth straight week that applications have been below 300,000.

The decline in unemployment applications was matched last month by employers, adding 248,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent, marking a six year low.

"The labor market is going pretty well," Thomas Simons, an economist with Jefferies LLC, told Bloomberg. "The less slack there is in the labor force, the more likely there is to be upward pressure on wages, which then of course would filter through to a greater demand for all sorts of goods and services, and better growth."

The number of people receiving benefits has also fallen steadily to 2.38 million in the week ending Sept. 27, the fewest since May 2006. But as unemployment insurance only last for 26 weeks in most states, the declining figures might not imply they found work.

Civilian labor force participation is 62.7 percent, a drop of nearly 100,000 people from when the participation rate is 2009 was 66 percent.

The number of people working part-time, but who would prefer full-time, is 7.1 million. Not counted as unemployed are 2.2 million people "not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometimes in the prior 12 months." Those two categories account for 11.8 percent of people not fully participating in the workforce.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics in its report on Tuesday said there are 4.8 million job openings, the highest level since 2001. The openings are in areas of non-durable goods manufacturing, health care and social assistance, and in accommodation and food service.