New unemployment claims in the US jumped higher than expected last week, with 54,000 more people seeking jobless benefits.

New jobless claims rose to 524,000 in the week to January 10, up from 470,000 the previous week, figures released today by the US Labour Department indicated.

But the number of people collecting unemployment benefits fell to 4.4 million in the week to January 3, down from 4.6 million a week earlier, which had been the largest number of benefits claimants in 26 years.

Economists had expected 503,000 people to be making new jobless claims.

The figures had been skewed by the Christmas holiday period, with a surge of claims just before Christmas and a sudden drop afterwards.

Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist for High Frequency Economics, said that unemployment claims were not yet close to peaking.

"We doubt that peak will be reached before the fall of this year," he said.

"The weekly numbers are always volatile but we think a peak above 750K is a reasonable, if very depressing, expectation."

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