Jobless Claims Reach Four-Month High

Initial jobless claims rose to the highest in almost four months last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Claims for the week ended Saturday rose by 34,000 to 406,000, Labor said.

The figure was higher than economists’ forecasts of 380,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, rose to 382,500 from 378,000.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits fell to 3.107 million for the week ended July 12, from 3.116 million the previous week.