Initial jobless claims jumped by 27,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
New claims increased to 412,000 for the week ended Saturday, higher than economists’ forecasts of little change at 380,000 claims, Bloomberg reported.
The end-of-quarter gain was larger than usual, Labor said.
The four-week moving average of new claims, a less volatile measure, rose to 395,750, from 390,250.
Continuing claims for the previous week ended April 2 rose by about 40,000 from a week earlier, to 4.31 million.
© 2010, Transport Topics Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
RELATED ARTICLES