Jobless claims for the latest week increased by 21K which is the largest one-week increase since late last Summer when Hurricane Harvey struck Texas. What’s still pretty amazing is that even after the increase, claims only amounted to 231K, which in any other period over the last several years would have been considered an extraordinarily low reading. Jobless claims have now been below 250K for eight straight weeks and below 300K for 157 weeks in a row.

After hitting a multi-decade low last week, the four-week moving average increased slightly to 222.5K from 220.5K last week.

On a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, jobless claims increased by 30.5K. Even with the increase, though, this week’s reading was well below the average of 353K for the current week of the year dating back to 2000. To find a week at this time of year where NSA claims were lower, you have to go back to 1969.