17.12.202012:36:00UTC+00U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise To 885,000

After reporting a significant increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing initial jobless claims unexpectedly saw further upside in the week ended December 12th.

The report said initial jobless claims rose to 885,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level of 862,000.

The continued increase surprised economist, who had expected jobless claims to drop to 800,000 from the 853,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected increase, jobless claims climbed to their highest level since hitting 893,000 in the week ended September 5th.