The latest tally on inital jobless claims came in at 264,000, beating expectations.
The four-week average of claims is now at the lowest since April 2000.
Economists were expecting that jobless claims rose to 273,000 from 265,000 the prior week, according to Bloomberg.
The data last week showed that jobless claims were near a 15-year low.
The four-week average of initial claims dropped to 279,500 last week, the lowest level since May 6, 2000.
Also last week, we got the jobs report for April, which showed the US economy added 223,000 jobs, a rebound from a weak March, while the unemployment rate fell to 5.4% from 5.5%.