Those Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose in number from a five-month low last week, but experts say the numbers remained below a level associated with a strengthening labour market.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 7,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 265,000 for the week ended March 12. The prior week's claims were revised to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported.
Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with healthy labour market conditions, for 54 weeks, the longest stretch since 1973.
Labour market resilience has helped to ease fears the economy could be heading into a recession, which recently triggered a sharp stock market selloff and subsequent tightening in financial market conditions. That could keep the Federal Reserve on course to gradually raise interest rates this year.
The U.S. central bank held rates steady on Wednesday and new projections from Fed policymakers showed they expected two quarter-point rate increases by the end of this year, half the number seen in December.
Economists had forecast jobless claims rising to 268,000 in the latest week. A department analyst said there were no special factors influencing last week's claims data and no states had been estimated.
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