US Jobless Claims Rose Last Week

By Matt Grossman

More Americans filed for initial jobless benefits last week, according to the Department of Labor.

The week through Nov. 30 brought 224,000 initial jobless claims, compared with 215,000 a week earlier. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had been forecasting 215,000 initial claims in the most-recent week.

The number of continued claims, a gauge of the size of the unemployed population, fell to 1.87 million in the week through Nov. 23, compared with 1.9 million the week before.

The data showing a rising but fairly steady level of new jobless claims comes a day before the November jobs report, which economists expect will show a sharp recovery in job creation after October's data were marred by hurricanes and the recent strike at Boeing.

Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal are expecting to see that a net 214,000 new jobs were created last month, up from just 12,000 in October.

The report is seen as pivotal for the Federal Reserve's Dec. 18 decision on whether to continue cutting interest rates.

Write to Matt Grossman at matt.grossman@wsj.com