A day earlier than usual due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday on Thursday, the Labor Department released a report on Wednesday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly edged higher in the week ended November 17th.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 224,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 221,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to slip to 215,000 from the 216,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected uptick, jobless claims reached their highest level since hitting 232,000 in the week ended June 30th.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 218,500, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average of 216,500.
Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, dipped by 2,000 to 1.668 million in the week ended November 10th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims still climbed to 1,649,750, an increase of 7,500 from the previous week's revised average of 1,642,250.
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