The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid last week rose more than expectation, while the job market kept tight amid recovering economy.
In the week ending Nov. 8, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits rose to 290,000, 12,000 more than the unrevised level of the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday.
The data was higher than the market average forecast of 280,000.
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility, edged up by 6,000 to 285,000 last week. The advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Nov. 1 increased 36,000 from the previous week to 2,392,000.
The U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.8 percent, hitting a fresh six-year low, the Labor Department said last week.
U.S. real gross domestic (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter this year after the economy grew 4.6 percent in the second quarter, according to the latest GDP data from the U.S. Commerce Department.