Jobless Claims Rise for Week

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he number of workers filing initial unemployment claims climbed 11,000 last week to 283,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.

That was below economists’ predictions of a rise to 300,000 new claims, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 288,750, the lowest level in more than five years, Labor said. The previous week’s level of 299,500 had also been a five-year low.

ontinuing jobless claims for the previous week ended Jan. 14 rose to 2.581 million from 2.528 million a week prior to that.