WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The number of people who applied for new unemployment benefits in the last week of November fell back below the 300,000 mark, signalling continued improvement in the labor market.

Initial jobless claims dropped by 17,000 to 297,000 in the week ended Nov. 29, a week that included the Thanksgiving holiday. The decline erased a surprising spike in the prior week that pushed claims to the highest level since early September.

Claims often decline in the Thanksgiving week because government offices are closed or short-staffed and many people wait until after the holiday to file a claim. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected initial claims to fall to a seasonally adjusted 298,000.

The average of new claims over the past four weeks rose by 4,750 to 299,000. The monthly number, which is still near a postrecession low, smoothed out the volatility in the weekly report and is seen as a more accurate predictor of labor-market trends.

The drop in applications pushed the weekly level of initial claims below the key 300,000 mark for the 12th time in the past 13 weeks. Two weeks ago, new claims jumped by a surprising 18,000 to top the 300,000 mark for the first time since early September, an increase widely seen as an aberration.

Still, initial jobless claims often gyrate sharply in the period stretching from Thanksgiving until Martin Luther King Jr. day in late January because of holidays and poor weather. Sometimes, huge increases pop up in the midst of a downward trend, or claims drop more sharply than the actual pace of layoffs would suggest.

The result: economists are very cautious in how they judge the weekly report until after the holiday season is over. Claims usually settle back down in February, barring any unusually severe winter weather.

The more telling labor-market indicator is, of course, the comprehensive monthly jobs report, which is expected Friday. Economists anticipated the U.S. added a healthy 235,000 jobs in November, though a smaller-than-expected gain in the ADP employment report suggested hiring might have been a touch slower than Wall Street expects.

The economy has added an average of 229,000 jobs a month so far this year, putting the U.S. on track to see the largest annual jobs increase since 1999.

Despite this, the U.S. labor market still has not recovered all its prerecession vigor. About 18 million Americans who want a full-time job say they cannot find one, and millions of other Americans have dropped out of the labor force.

In the week ended Nov. 22, continuing claims increased by 39,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.36 million, just a hair above a 15-year low.

Continuing claims reflect the number of people who already receive regular unemployment benefits.

Initial claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 314,000 from 313,000.