Bloomberg (10/10/13) Jeanna Smialek; Shobhana Chandra

The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits rose last week, in part due to a backlog stemming from a change to California’s computer systems and the partial federal government shutdown. Jobless claims rose 66,000 to 374,000 in the week ended Oct. 5, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast an increase to 311,000. Claims filed by furloughed federal workers will not be included in the figures, although nonfederal employees affected by the shutdown are.

The less-volatile four-week moving average rose to 325,000 last week from 305,000.