The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 278,500 last week, up 2,750 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 May 21 were 268,000, down 10,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level.

This marks 64 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1973.

No special factors affected this week’s initial claims.

Bloomberg reports jobless claims fell for a second week, indicating the surge at the start of May reflected temporary dismissals. Initial claims fell more than the median forecast in its survey of 49 economists, which called for initial claims to decline to 275,000.

Claims are “trending very, very low — not a whole lot of job destruction out there,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James Financial Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, told Bloomberg. “The job market is still doing really, really well.”