REUTERS/Mark Blinch
Economists forecast, according to Bloomberg, that first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose by 1,000 to 260,000 last week.
As the most timely gauge of the labor market, economists track claims for early signs of trouble.
For 80 straight weeks as of September 15, claims had not totaled more than 300,000 in a single week - the longest streak since 1970.
"All the softening in payroll growth this year has been due to a slower pace of hiring, not rising layoffs," wrote Pantheon Macroeconomics' Ian Shepherdson in a client note.
"We appreciate that falling hiring tends to be the first signal of cyclical deterioration in the labor market, but note that hiring intentions are more volatile than layoffs. Right now, we see no sign that employers are so worried about the outlook that they need to start letting people go in greater numbers."