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A day ahead of the release of the more closely watched monthly jobs report, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a slight uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended August 31st.
The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 217,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 216,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average also crept up to 216,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 214,750.
