The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance was 269,250 last week, down 1,750 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 Nov. 28 were 269,000, up 9,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level.

No special factors affected this week’s initial claims.

Bloomberg reported claims matched the median forecast in its survey of 41 economists.

“Claims are low and people’s expectations of the labor market are improving,” Joe Carson, director of global economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York, told Bloomberg before the report. “Everything says that labor markets are tightening.”