Initial jobless claims surged 31,000 to 313,000 in the week ended Feb. 21, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Claims for the week ended Feb. 14 were revised to 282,000 from the initially reported 283,000.
Continuing jobless claims were 2.401 million in the week ended Feb. 14, down from the revised 2.422 million the week before, initially reported as 2.425 million.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 290,000 initial claims and 2.385 million continuing claims.
The four-week average of initial claims was up 11,500 in the week ended Feb. 21 to 294,500.
