The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance edged up to 251,500 last week, up 500 from the previous week’s unrevised average, according to seasonally adjusted numbers released today by the US Department of Labor.

The four-week moving average decreases the volatility of the weekly numbers. Total initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ended Nov. 26 were 268,000, up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level.

This marks 91 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1970.

No special factors affected this week’s initial claims.

Bloomberg reports the most Americans since June filed for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting volatility in the data that typically occurs around the year-end holidays. However, the increase exceeded the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, which called for initial claims to increase to 253,000.

“The data include Thanksgiving, and hence, both the early month decline in claims and the more recent bounce back could reflect problems with seasonal adjustment,” Barclays economist Rob Martin wrote in a note today. “On the whole, we view incoming claims data as very supportive of further improvement in labor market conditions this year.”