Washington, Jul 6 (IANS): The number of people in the US applying for unemployment aid last week dropped to the lowest level since mid May, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits was 374,000 in the week ending June 30, Xinhua reported.

It was a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's revised figure, easing concern that the labor market was deteriorating.

The number of jobless claims needs to stay below 375,000 to indicate a sustained drop in the unemployment rate. It had been above the benchmark since May 19.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 23 was 3.306 million, up 4,000 from the prior week.

A separate private payrolls report from ADP Employer Services released Thursday showed US companies added 176,000 workers in June, compared with the prior month's 136,000.

The US government is expected to release the June jobs report Friday, and it may give a more definite unemployment picture of the world's largest economy.

In April and May, US employers added an average of only 73,000 jobs per month, far less than the 200,000-plus average in the first three months of this year.

The unemployment rate climbed to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent the previous month.