The data from
the Labour Department showed on
Thursday the number of applications for unemployment unexpectedly increased more than predicted last week.
According to
the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 6,000 to 225,000 for the week ended September 28. This
was the first gain in first-time unemployment claims in three weeks.
Economists had forecast
220,000 new claims last week.
Claims for the prior week were revised upwardly to 219,000
from the original estimate of 218,000.
Meanwhile, the
four-week moving average of jobless claims declined to 224,250 from an upwardly revised 225,000 (from 224,750)
in the previous week. This represented the
lowest count since the week ended June 1 (222,250).
As for continuing claims, they dropped to 1,826,000, compared to a downwardly revised 1,827,000 (from 1,834,000) in the previous week.