More Americans filed jobless claims last week than in September. The reasoning could be due to seasonal and holiday workers being laid off.

Some 316,000 claims were filed for the week ending Jan. 10, according to the Labor Department. That is the highest level since the week ending Sept. 6, 2014. It was an unexpected hike.

Only 295,000 claims were expected by economists interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, and the median number surveyed by Bloomberg called for only 290,000 claims.

Claims have been below 300,000 almost every week since July.

A less volatile measure of jobless claims is the four-week moving average. That figure sits at 298,000 claims, up 6,750.

As of right now, it is not clear why the spike in jobless claims arose. January is usually the time when companies tell seasonal workers that their time is up, so that could be a factor.

"We attribute the spike to the seasonal adjustment process," said Jesse Hurwitz, economist at Barclays Bank. "We expect initial and continuing claims to resume their downward trend in the coming weeks and reflect broader improvement in labor markets." 

For job creation, 2014 was a great year. Employers added 2.95 million jobs, the best in terms of job creation since 1999.

With more jobs added in 2014, the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates. The short-term lending rate has been near zero since 2008. 

Next week could be very similar in jobless claims because of seasonality. 

"The seasonals look even more odd next week, so an immediate reversal of this increase is not a done deal; claims could easily be reported even higher," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. 

What do you think of these numbers? Is the American job market getting better or worse? Leave us a comment below and let us know what you think in the comments section below.