NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - New jobless claims fell last week to the lowest level in more than three years, the government said Thursday, coming in lower than Wall Street analysts had expected.

The Labor Department said 336,000 people filed new claims for state unemployment benefits in the week ended March 13 compared with a revised 342,000 the prior week.

Economists, on average, expected 345,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.

It was the lowest level for new claims since 316,000 in the week of Jan. 13, 2001.

The four-week moving average of new claims, which irons out the volatility of the weekly data, slipped to 344,000 from a revised 346,000 the prior week. The four-week average was the lowest since 336,500 in the week of Jan. 27, 2001.

Continued claims, the number of people out of work for a week or more, rose slightly to 3.06 million in the week ended Mar. 6, the latest data available, from 3.02 million the prior week.

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in. Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. Manage alerts | What is this?

U.S. stock prices fell despite the strength of the report. Treasury bond prices also fell, pushing yields higher.

Though it usually takes a while for unemployment to fall once the economy's started growing again -- since employers are hesitant to start hiring until they believe the recovery is for real -- the United States has enjoyed nine straight quarters of growth, including the strongest performance in 20 years in the third quarter of 2003, without significant job creation.

In fact, since March 2001, when the 2001 recession began, more than 2.3 million payroll jobs have been lost, according to the Labor Department, making this recession/recovery period the most "jobless" since World War II.

Several indicators have been pointing up for the job market, including a steady, if slow, decline in weekly jobless claims, leading many economists to forecast greater job growth this year.

But some economists worry that structural changes in the job market, including technological advances and a growing appetite for cheap offshore labor, will keep hiring muted in 2004.