New claims for jobless insurance benefits in the United States is reported to tumble in the past week, official data revealed Thursday, outlining ongoing improvement in the critical labour market.

Initial applications for state unemployment benefits reported a fall by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000 last week, reduced from a revised 483,000 in the prior week, the Labour Department posted on Thursday. However, analysts had speculated claims to slip to just 465,000.

Claims had been elevated over the last several weeks, and this latest level is more in line with the general downward trend that has continued for the past year, analysts said.

However, the tumble in jobless claims assisted in underpinning U. S. stock prices, which experienced soaring pressure on concerns over a European deal to back Greece with its debt crisis. Stocks were modestly lower at midmorning, while U. S. Treasury debt prices were little changed.

In an economic report released earlier on Thursday, the White House revealed that it hoped the economy to create an average of 95,000 jobs a month this year.

"We are, as we've said many times, expecting positive job growth by spring," Christina Romer, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said in an interview with Reuters Insider

U. S. witnessed its economic output to climb by an annualized 5.7 percent pace in the fourth quarter, but this has not translated into employment gains.