The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose only slightly last week after a big drop the week before, a hopeful sign the job market is still on the mend.

Other data on Thursday showed a sharp drop in new orders for U.S. factory goods, although orders outside the transportation sector rose for a second straight month, which should calm fears of a rapid loss of momentum in factory activity.

Worries over the so-called fiscal cliff -- automatic tax hikes and government spending cuts that will suck about $600 billion out of the U.S. economy next year unless Congress acts -- have made businesses cautious about ramping up hiring.

The report on jobless claims, however, offered little sign that companies were laying off workers on a wide scale.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 4,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, the Labor Department.

But that followed a drop of 22,000 and a four-week average, which offers a view of trends, held steady at 375,000.

The distressed labor market has been a hurdle to President Barack Obama's bid for re-election, and a report last week measuring employment last month offers cold comfort.

That report, the penultimate one before the November election, is expected to show employers added 113,000 jobs to their payrolls in September, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

That would likely be too few to lower the nation's 8.1% jobless rate, which is seen as rising to 8.2%.