<p>May 6 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits dropped to 315,000 last week, the fewest since October 2000, a government report showed.</p>
<p>Initial applications fell by 25,000 in the week that ended Saturday from 340,000, the Labor Department said in Washington. The number of people continuing to collect state jobless benefits declined to 2.935 million in the week that ended April 24, the lowest since June 2001. The statistics are reported with a one- week lag to initial claims.</p>