US job creation remains healthy even as record energy prices stir worries about a slowdown in hiring in some sectors, reports showed yesterday.

Help-wanted ads in 51 major newspapers across the country edged up in July, according to the Conference Board, a private research group. The help-wanted index rose to 39 from 38 in June and was the highest since April.

The report was consistent with the July payrolls report issued earlier this month showing 207,000 non-farm jobs were added.

"This modest rise in July may reflect the firm July payroll rather than being a signal for August," said David Sloan, analyst at 4CAST Ltd in New York.

Financial markets showed little response to the report, partly because help-wanted ads in newspapers are seen as an outdated measure.

Ten-year Treasury note yields were at 4.18 per cent, up from 4.17 per cent on Wednesday, and the stock market was marginally higher as crude oil prices retreated.

"Because of the dramatic shift in job advertising market share from newspapers to the internet, the help-wanted index has lost much of its lustre," said Steven Wood, economist at Insight Economics.

The Conference Board recently added a help-wanted series tracking job ads on some 1,200 major and niche internet job boards. The traditional help-wanted index dates back to 1951.

There were 1.97 million jobs advertised online in July, down from just over two million in June and May but up from about 1.8 million in April, the group said.

Sloan said the history of the online help-wanted series is "still too brief to be useful." Earlier, the Labour Department said the number of Americans making new claims for jobless benefits fell by 4,000 last week.