WASHINGTON – Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the third drop in the past four weeks and a sign that the job market is slowly improving.

The Labor Department says weekly claims for jobless aid dipped by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 420,000 in the week ending Dec. 11.

The four-week average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell for the sixth straight week to 422,750. That’s the lowest level since August 2008, just before the financial crisis intensified with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Weekly first-time applications below 425,000 tend to signal modest job growth. But economists say applications would need to dip consistently to 375,000 or below to indicate a significant decline in unemployment.

In other economic news Thursday:

• Home construction rose in November after two months of declines. Even with the increase, the pace of activity is still 45 percent below the 1 million annualized rate that is consistent with a healthy housing market.

• Americans’ stronger appetite for imported goods helped to lift the broadest measure of the U.S. trade deficit in the July-September quarter to its highest point since late 2008. The current account trade deficit grew to $127.2 billion in the third quarter, a 3.3 percent increase from the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.