REUTERS/Mark Blinch
Economists forecast that claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in the past week, fell to 250,000.
Last week, claims dipped by 3,000 to 258,000, a reading above economists' expectations.
That marked the fourth straight week that jobless claims came in higher than expected, which was the longest streak of higher readings since January 2016.
Initial jobless claims are used as a real-time proxy for the pace of layoffs and the overall health of the labor market since people usually file for benefits soon after they lose their jobs.