The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid unexpectedly edged down last week to the lowest level in more than two months, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

In the week ending Nov. 30, the advance figure of seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits fell sharply by 23, 000 to 298,000, the lowest level since early September. Economists were expecting a mild uptick to 320,000 from an initially reading of 316,000 in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatility, edged down by 10,750 to 332,250 last week, the lowest since late September.

The advance figure of seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Nov. 23 stood at 2.744 million, down 21,000 from the previous week.

The weekly applications for unemployment aid have been trending lower for the past two months. The private sector on Wednesday reported a faster job growth in November after the end of a federal government shutdown a month earlier, reinforcing the job market is improving.

U.S. private companies added 215,000 jobs in November, the largest monthly gain since a year ago, according to the National Employment Report released jointly by Automatic Data Processing ( ADP) and Moody's Analytics. The Labor Department will release its jobs report for November Friday.