The Labor Department released a report on Thursday unexpectedly showing a slight drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended February 18th.
The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 192,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 195,000.
The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 200,000 from the 194,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Meanwhile, the report said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 191,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 189,750.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
