The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits took an upswing just before Christmas.About 381,000 people filed initial jobless claims in the week ended Dec. 24, the Labor Department said Thursday. That marked an increase of 15,000 from the prior week. Economists were expecting claims to rise to 368,000. The Labor Department adjusts the figures to account for seasonal trends, so the holidays can sometimes distort the numbers slightly. Economists look to the four-week average to smooth out volatility. In the latest report, that number decreased to 375,000.Meanwhile, continuing claims -- which include Americans filing for their second week of claims or more -- increased 34,000 to 3,601,000 in the week ended Dec. 17, the most recent data available.The government will release its monthly jobs report on Jan. 6, tallying up the number of jobs created in December and calculating the new unemployment rate. A month earlier, the unemployment rate fell to 8.6%, but that drop was partly due to workers giving up on the job market and leaving the labor force altogether. It's possible the unemployment rate rose in December if many of those workers re-entered the job market during the month.