U.S unemployment claims increased the most in three weeks

"Businesses just seem to be sitting tight with regard to layoffs, which is reason for optimism," Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. "If we get through these hurdles over the next couple months the job market should begin to improve more noticeably," said Sweet,the best forecaster of jobless claims over the past two years.