U.S. initial jobless claims up from 14-year low

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment edged up higher in the final week of January after falling to a 14-year low, U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

In the week ending on Jan. 31, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits rose to 278,000 from 267,000 in the prior week, the lowest level since April 2000, the department said.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of labor market conditions, fell by 6,500 to 292,750, still showing a steadily improving job market.

The advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending on Jan. 24 stood at 2.4 million, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level.

The Labor Department will release on Friday its jobs report for January. In December, the U.S. economy added 252,000 jobs, making 2014 the best year for hiring since 1999, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 5.6 percent, the lowest level in six-and-a-half years. Endite