Applications for US unemployment benefits rose to a two-month high last week, at a time around the end-of-year holidays when data is volatile.
Initial claims increased by 17,000 to 242,000 in the week ended Dec. 7. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 220,000 applications. A metric that helps smooth out volatility, the four-week moving average, rose as well and unadjusted data suggest the gains were spread across states.