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New applicants for US unemployment aid rose last week to the highest number of claims since November, hinting at a labour market cool-down.

There were 262,000 initial jobless claims on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week to August 6, according to US labour department data released on Thursday. This was slightly below economists’ expectations for 263,000 claims, but was the highest number so far this year.

The previous week was downwardly revised from 260,000 to 248,000 claims.

Thursday’s report showed that the pace of new claims rose the most in California, Texas, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, based on preliminary figures that were not seasonally adjusted.

Many companies have announced lay-offs in recent weeks after reporting mixed quarterly earnings. Ecommerce retailer Shopify recently said it would axe 10 per cent of its workforce on concerns that inflation and high interest rates would damp consumer spending.

Brokerage Robinhood also recently announced lay-offs, saying it would cut 23 per cent of its headcount because of an “extremely challenging macro environment”.

“Weakening labour market dynamics lend upside risk to claims in the weeks ahead,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead US economist at Oxford Economics. “However, we don’t anticipate a sharp increase in joblessness given that labour demand continues to outpace supply and the economy remains on a positive, albeit modest, growth trajectory.”

Continuing jobless claims, which measure the number of Americans actively receiving unemployment aid, were 1.43mn in the week to July 30, edging up from the previous week’s revised figure of 1.42mn.