WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Initial jobless claims in the United States rose to 218,000 last week amid cooling labor market, after dropping in the previous two weeks, the U.S. Labor Department reported on Thursday.

       In the week ending Dec. 23, the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased by 12,000 from the previous week's revised level, according to a report released by the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

       The four-week moving average for initial jobless claims, a method to iron out data volatility, decreased by 250 to 212,000, the report showed.

       U.S. employers added 199,000 jobs in November amid slowing job growth, with the unemployment rate edging down to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Labor Department reported early this month.

       Over the past three months, payroll job gains averaged 204,000 jobs per month, lower than the averaged 278,000 per month in the first half of the year.

       The median unemployment rate projection in the Fed's newly released quarterly summary of economic projections would rise somewhat from 3.8 percent at the end of this year to 4.1 percent at the end of next year.