The number of U.S. workers claiming unemployment aid rose last week after sinking to a 14-year low earlier in the month.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 302,000 in the week ended July 26, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
The figures were slightly better than expected. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal, on average, had forecast 305,000 new claims.
Claims for the previous week were revised down to 279,000, the lowest level since May 2000.
The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, decreased by 3,500 to 297,250, the lowest since April 2006.
Jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, have been trending lower this year. Hiring has also improved, with employers adding well over 200,000 jobs a month for the past five months.
Thursday's report showed the number of workers continuing to draw unemployment benefits increased by 31,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.54 million in the week ended July 19. Those figures are reported with a one-week lag.
After rising to a level of more than 600,000 in early 2009, weekly claims have dropped steadily.
They have hovered near 300,000 since May, but haven't dropped below that level consistently since 2006, before the economy fell into a recession that lasted from December 2007 through June 2009.
Before the recession, the nation's unemployment rate was well below 5%. In June, it was 6.1%.
