The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell last week but remain at slightly elevated though not troubling levels.

Jobless claims for the week of Aug. 3 fell by 17,000 to 233,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

That's fewer than the 240,000 analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting.

Weekly unemployment claims are widely considered representative of layoffs, and though they have trended higher recently, they remain at historically healthy levels.

Continuing claims, which represent the total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits, rose by 6,000 to 1.88 million for the week of July 27. That's the most since the week of Nov. 27, 2021.

The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, rose by 2,500 to 240,750.