Washington, April 16 : Initial unemployment claims in the US have dropped to 576,000, the lowest level since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic early last year that ravaged the labour market, the Labour Department reported. In the week ending April 10, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased by 193,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 769,000, according to a report released on Thursday by the Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000, Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying. The latest report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect regular state unemployment benefits in the week ending April 3 increased by 4,000 to reach 3.7 million. Meanwhile, the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs, state and federal combined, for the week ending March 27 decreased by 1.2 million to 16.9 million, as the country continues to grapple with the fallout of the pandemic. Last spring, as Covid-19 shutdowns rippled through the workforce, initial jobless claims spiked by 3 million to reach a record 3.3 million in the week ending March 21, 2020, and then doubled to reach a record 6.87 million in the week ending March 28. After that, the number, though at record highs, has been declining overall, but the trend was reversed multiple times amid Covid-19 resurgence. Initial jobless claims in the US fell to revised level of 658,000 in the week ending March 20, before rising to 728,000 and 769,000 in the following weeks, indicating continued disruption to labour market recovery. /IANS