The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday weekly applications for unemployment aid fell another 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 264,000, the lowest level of applications since April 2000.

The four-week average was 283,000, a decrease of 4,250. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Sept. 27 was 2.1 million, a decrease of over 38,000 from the previous week. A year ago the claims were 3.9 million people.

The announcement came as investors are concerned about slowing global economic growth and inflation, which has roiled the financial markets in the past week. Slowdowns in Europe and China are seen as threatening the U.S. recovery.

The Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen, speaking at a conference on economic mobility and inequality in Boston on Friday, said the last several decades have seen a sustained rise in income inequality, reported to UPI.

"The past several decades have seen the most sustained rise in inequality since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality following the Great Depression," Yellen said in her keynote address.

"The extent and continuing increase in inequality in the United States greatly concerns me. I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity."

Yellen said living standards had been stagnant for most Americans for the past few decades, and it is an unhealthy development when the U.S. economy relies on consumer spending to drive growth.

Yellen cited investments in early childhood education, making college cheaper and opportunities for small business owners and entrepreneurs as possible solutions. Those are all aspect of the economy the Federal Reserve has no authority over.

Yellen also said the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, or 15.9 million, own two-thirds of all stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other financial assets while the majority of working American's wages have remained stagnant.

One of the bench marks of success for many Americans has been owning their own home. The lower mortgage rates, a Fed stimulus plan, has only really helped people who already own homes or have credit good enough to buy homes.