In the week ending December 27, initial claims for unemployment insurance increased to 298,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 281,000 (from 280,000). Although the number of claims increased, they remained near postrecession lows. The four-week moving average, a less volatile gauge of underlying labor market conditions, increased slightly to 291,000 from 290,000 the previous week. Initial claims fell below the 300,000 level in late July and have held there fairly steadily since then. The last time they were consistently below the 300,000 level was in 2006.
