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Applications creep higher: Requests for first-time unemployment benefits moved up modestly last week as the nation’s job market continued its roller-coaster ride. The Labor Department said Thursday the number of Americans filing initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 18 was a seasonally adjusted 332,000, up 4,000 from a revised 328,000 the previous week. The four-week moving average, preferred by economists as a measure of hiring trends over the more volatile weekly number, declined by 1,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 331,000, to the lowest level in more than two months.
