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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.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also inched up to 240,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average of 239,000.
Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 39,000 to 2.0 million in the week ended March 11th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims also dropped to 2,026,750, a decrease of 32,000 from the previous week's revised average of 2,058,750.
