WASHINGTON: New claims for US unemployment insurance rose for the first time in three weeks but continued to hover near a two-year low, official data showed Thursday.
The Labor Department said a seasonally adjusted 410,000 initial jobless claims were filed in the week ending February 12, up 6.5 percent from the prior week when claims had fallen to their lowest level since July 2008.
The department slightly revised the number of claims filed in the prior week to 385,000 from an initial estimate of 382,000. Last week's increase in claims after two weeks of declines was expected and was a bit higher than the 408,000 average analyst estimate. The four-week moving average, a measurement that smooths week-to-week volatility, rose 1,750 to 417,750.
The weekly new jobless claims data continued to show an improvement in the troubled labor market seen since December. According to official data, the January unemployment rate fell a surprisingly strong 0.8 percentage points from December to 9.0 percent.
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