The US four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 5,500 last week to a total of 271,500 from the previous week’s downwardly revised 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 Aug. 15 rose by 4,000 to a total of 277,000 from the previous week’s downwardly revised level.

No special factors affected this week’s initial claims.

Bloomberg reports claims rose more than its median forecast of 48 economists, which called for 271,000 claims. However, the subdued level of firings has been accompanied by falling unemployment and steady job gains, signs the labor market continues to heal in its seventh year of recovery, according to Bloomberg.

Claims are “still close to their lowest level in several decades, and that’s a good sign,” said Ryan Wang, an economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York, whose forecast was among the closest in the Bloomberg survey. “It’s a stable, low level of claims.”