The U.S. Labor Department is out with yet another weekly jobless claims report. Claims rose by 4,000 to 317,000 in the past week. Dow Jones was calling for 310,000, and Bloomberg was calling for 309,000.

Last week’s report was revised higher by 1,000 claims, up to 313,000.

The four-week average, which aims to smooth out weekly volatility, rose by 4,750 to 315,250. Continuing jobless claims, which is the army of the unemployed and reported with a one-week lag, rose by 11,000 to 2.614 million.

Note that both the four-week average of jobless claims and the continuing jobless claims are effectively coming off of post-recession lows.

Fortunately, the Labor Department’s reading showed that there were no special factors creating any distortions higher or lower.

Over the coming weeks, we will start to see seasonal adjustments due to workers who are temporarily leaving the workforce who operate in jobs serving the education market.

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