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By Jeffry Bartash, Market Watch—

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in mid-January reached seven-month highs, perhaps a sign that the rate of layoffs in the U.S. has risen slightly from record lows.

Initial jobless claims climbed a seasonally adjusted 10,000 to 293,000 in the seven days stretching from Jan. 10 to Jan 16, the government said Thursday. That’s the highest level since last July.

What’s more, the four-week average of initial claims rose by 6,500 to 285,000, the Labor Department said. The last time the more reliable monthly average was that high was last April.

Initial claims are still at very low levels — any number below 300,000 is viewed as evidence of a strong labor market. And other gauges such as the more valuable U.S. monthly employment report show that hiring is still going strong.

Still, initial claims have risen more than 14% after touching a post-recession low of 256,000 in early October.

Some or all of the increase in claims could stem from the end of the holiday season, when many companies hire and then let go temporary workers. Claims are usually quite volatile from Thanksgiving until the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

But the weekly claims report is supposed to adjust for seasonal changes in employment. The recent rise in claims might suggest the long decline that started in 2009 has come to an end, adding to a tenor of uncertainty spawned in part by deep declines in U.S. stocks early in the new year.

“That claims are picking up a bit may suggest we could see a bit of a normalization in the recently outsized gains in payrolls,” said Derek Lindsey of BNP Paribas in a note to clients.

Meanwhile, some 2.21 million people collected weekly unemployment checks in the seven days ended Jan 9. These so-called continuing claims were 56,000 lower compared to the prior week.