Claims are highly volatile, especially around holidays," he said in a note to clients.

Without the seasonal adjustments, however, claims actually rose to 258,622 last week, more than 18,000 claims higher than in the week before.

Continued jobless claims, which count workers who have filed for benefits for at least two consecutive weeks, stood at around 2 million in the week ended November 13, down 60,000 from the prior week.

Overall, 2.4 million Americans received government benefits under various programs in the week ended November 6, down from 3.2 million at the end of October.