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In a sign of continued weakness in the labor market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended September 19th.
The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 870,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 866,000.
The modest increase surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to drop to 843,000 from the 860,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average fell to 878,250, a decrease of 35,250 from the previous week's revised average of 913,500.
