Unemployment Claims Rise for Week

February 16, 2006 8:35 AM, EST

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

he number of workers filing initial unemployment claims rose by 19,000 last week to 297,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

That was higher than economists’ predictions of a rise to 285,000 from 277,000 the previous week, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, rose to 283,000, from 276,750.

ontinuing jobless claims for the previous week ended Feb. 4 fell 39,000 to 2.511 million a week prior to that.