Unemployment benefit applications were down last week when compared to previous weeks, a sign that the economy is improving and more employers are hiring or retaining employees.

The Labor Department said Thursday that 294,000 applications for unemployment benefits were filled out by unemployed workers last week. That's a decrease of 4,000 applications from the prior week.

Even seasonal workers and holiday help were kept on with some companies, according to Bloomberg.

The monthly average, which can be a more accurate number of applications filled out per week, is 290,500. That number fell by just 250 since it was last reported.

However, the monthly average has been on a downward trend for the last 12 months. That mark has been below 300,000 since September and is down 16 percent for the year.

With fewer workers being laid off, fewer workers are applying for unemployment. Employers are even starting to hire more workers than when things in the economy were not as stable as they seem to be currently.

FactSet believes that when Friday's job report is released it will show that employers added 243,000 jobs in December. Adding that to a strong November of 321,000 new jobs, the economy will have added almost 3 million jobs in 2014, the best it has done since 1999.

Unemployment was at 6.7 percent at the start of 2014 and now sits at 5.8 percent.

An important note about unemployment is that it does not always accurately represent those who are jobless or underemployed. Those who have quit looking for jobs or those who just work part time are not calcuated in the rate.

For the past 10 months, private companies have consistently added 200,000 or more jobs, according to data from payroll processor ADP. If these numbers are true, Friday's report should be similar.