In the week ending Saturday, the number of people filing for U.S. unemployment benefits increased by 49,000 to 252,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 203,000.
This is the highest level for initial claims since Sept. 30, 2017 when it was 257,000, the Labor Department noted.
The report also showed that four-week moving average of initial claims, a method to iron out data volatility, increased by 6,250 to 224,000.
As a leading indicator of unemployment status in the United States, a lower reading in jobless claims indicates lower overall layoffs. The reading of jobless claims remained below the 300,000 threshold, signaling a tight labor market in the country.
For a bigger picture of the U.S. labor market, U.S. employers added 266,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, the lowest in nearly five decades, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday.
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