The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance was unchanged last week at 266,750, according to seasonally adjusted numbers released today by the US Department of Labor. The previous week’s average was revised down by 250.

The four-week moving average decreases the volatility of the weekly numbers. Total initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ended June 25 were 268,000, up 10,000 from the previous week’s level, which was revised downward by 1,000.

Despite the increase, this marks 69 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1973.

Bloomberg reports the level of initial jobless claims is still consistent with steady improvement in the labor market. However, initial claims exceeded the median forecast in its survey of economists, which called for initial claims to rise to 267,000. “We’re not seeing any huge increase in job losses out there,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial Inc., told Bloomberg. Brown correctly forecast the number of claims. “It’s consistent with further improvement in the labor market.”