In the week that ended March 19, unemployment claims decreased 28,000 to 187,000, the lowest since September of 1969, the Associated Press reported.

Overall, 1,350,000 were collecting unemployment benefits in the week that ended March 12, the lowest figure in more than 50 years.

The 52-year low for unemployment benefit applications highlights the continuing rebound of the U.S. economy from the COVID-19 pandemic-driven recession. In general, the pace of layoffs can be tracked by initial applications for unemployment benefits, according to AP.

President Joe Biden applauded the numbers in a statement Thursday, saying that the “historic progress is no accident: it’s the result of an economic strategy to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out.”

Noting the increasing prices in the U.S., he added that there was more work to be done “to cut costs for families, but today’s data are a reminder that the U.S. economy is uniquely well positioned to deal with the global challenge of inflation.”

The 50-year low in the total number of people collecting jobless aid in the week that ended on March 12 came after the figure reached a 50-year low the previous week, as well. More than 1.4 million Americans were collecting the benefits in the week that ended March 5.

The Labor Department report on Thursday showed that the four-week average for jobless claims decreased from 223,250 to 211,750. The average can offer a broader picture of claim trends than the potentially volatile weekly claim numbers, AP reported.

The continued decreases in first-time aid applications and the number of total people collecting the benefits follow 678,000 added jobs last month, the largest monthly figure since July of last year.

The unemployment rate also decreased from January to February, from 4 percent to 3.8 percent, respectively. The total number of unemployed people in February sat at 6.3 million, according to an earlier Labor Department report.

February’s figures edged the labor market numbers closer to pre-pandemic levels. In February of 2020, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, while the number of unemployed people was 5.7 million, according to the report.

After last week’s report on unemployment claims, President Joe Biden tweeted that the U.S. labor market is strong.

“Today we learned that the number of new unemployment claims is now lower than it was before the pandemic in 2019,” the tweet read.

Update 3/24/22, 12:45 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from President Joe Biden.