How states fared on unemployment benefit claims

More people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, though the trend in benefit applications in the past month remained low.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment aid rose 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 315,000, the most since late June. Still, the four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, rose just 750 to 304,000. The average is 7.1 percent lower than it was a year ago.

Here are the states with the biggest increases in applications. No states reported a decrease larger than 1,000. The data is for the week that ended Aug. 30, one week behind the national figures:

States with the biggest increases:

New York: Up 1,254, due to layoffs in transportation and warehousing, real estate and manufacturing

California: Up 1,563, no reason given