The average gas price jumped 5 cents in the past week, landing at $3.39 a gallon, according to AAA.  The price of gas is now 11 cents higher than it was a month ago, though 68 cents lower than a year ago when it averaged $4.07.

The main factor driving the higher price in recent weeks is an increase in the price of crude, according to the auto club.

“When the cost of crude oil crosses the $80 a barrel mark, that puts a lot of upward pressure on what we pay at the pump,” said Mary Maguire, AAA Northeast Vice President of Public and Government Affairs, “and as long as oil costs remain at the current level, drivers will likely see incremental price increases for now.”

Still, the price of gas in Massachusetts is running below the national average, according to the latest price survey. The national average climbed 7 cents in the last week and now sits at $3.67 per gallon, according to AAA.

The IRS says it has answered 2 million more calls this tax filing season than a year ago, with the average phone wait time now at four minutes.

That’s down considerably from 27 minutes for the 2022 tax season.

The federal tax administrator is promoting its improved customer service and giving credit to a big boost in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act that Democrats pushed through Congress last year.

Additionally, the agency served 100,000 more taxpayers in-person and digitized 80 times more paper forms than in 2022 and cleared the backlog of unprocessed 2022 individual tax returns.

“We’re trying to improve services dramatically,” said Wally Adeyemo, Treasury’s deputy secretary at an Urban Institute event on Monday.