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A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed an unexpected increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended March 18th.
The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 258,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level of 243,000.
The increase surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge down to 240,000 from the 241,000 originally reported for the previous week.
