Washington (AFP) – More people in the United States filed for unemployment benefits last week, after three straight weeks of declines.

The Labor Department said Thursday that claims rose by 23,000 to 248,000 for the week ended February 12. Orders from last week have been revised to 225,000.

The four-week average, which offsets weekly volatility, was down 10,500 to 243,250. This was the second consecutive week of declines after rising for five consecutive days due to the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which affected businesses in many parts of the country.

In all, less than 1.6 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the week ending February 5, down about 26,000 from the previous week.

This month, the Labor Department reported a surprising increase in hiring in January, with companies adding 467,000 jobs. It also revised its estimate of job gains in November and December with a total of 709,000 jobs. The unemployment rate rose to a minimum from 3.9% to 4%, with more and more people looking for work, but not everyone found it immediately.

Even as the omicron variant spread rapidly in the winter, employers were hiring. The surge in infections briefly affected the country’s robust economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession in 2020, but companies appear confident of long-term growth.

Huge government spending and the release of vaccines have boosted the economy, as companies added a record 6.4 million jobs last year.