The number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week and more people continued to collect unemployment checks at the end of November relative to the beginning of the year as demand for labor cools.

Applications for US unemployment benefits rose to a two-month high last week, at a time around the end-of-year holidays when data is volatile.

New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, increased to 6,502 in the week ending Nov. 30, up from 4,647 the week before, the Labor Department said. U.S. unemployment claims rose to 224,000 last week, up 9,