The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance was 278,750 last week, up 3,000 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 Jan. 9 were 284,000, up 7,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level.

No special factors affected this week’s initial claims.

Bloomberg reported the median forecast in its survey of economists called for initial claims to decline to 275,000, and the unexpected increase in initial claims is a sign labor market momentum may be starting to cool.

“This time of the year claims are pretty volatile given the difficulty of trying to adjust for the various holidays and the start of the quarter,” said Kevin Cummins, an economist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Conn., whose forecast for claims was among the closest in the Bloomberg survey. “Our assumption is the labor market is going to remain healthy, just at a somewhat more moderate pace of job growth.”