Over the past week, the number of people filing for new unemployment benefits across America declined drastically to hit the lowest level recorded in 18 months, a definite sign that the country's labor market might just be improving and turning over a new leaf.

For a week up-to December 26, the number of initial claims filed for jobless benefits slipped by 22,000 to 432,000. Also, the 4 week average of new claims filed, which looks to somewhat smooth the drastic changes recorded by the data on a weekly basis, declined by 5,500 to 460,250.

The latest recorded decline has been the 17th consecutive fall in the claims, the lowest number recorded since September 20, 2008.

The weekly report was released by the Labor Department on Thursday, and revealed that 4.98 million people had been bagging jobless benefits for over a week, as of the figure recorded in the week up-to December 19, which is a fall of 57,000.

"The trend in jobless claims is sometimes hard to read during the holidays. While an underlying downtrend is clearly in place, it is being exaggerated now by seasonal adjustment difficulties, which will continue over the very near term", Economist Joshua Shapiro of MFR Inc., New York, said.