Mubasher: The number of unemployed individuals in the US who applied for benefits edged up to five-week peak last, official weekly report showed on Thursday.
US unemployment claims edged up by 3,000 week-on-week to 222,000 claims in the week ended 8 June, the US Department of Labor said.
The more stable 4-week average of claims rose by 2,500 to 217,750 from the preceding week's upwardly revised average of 215,250.
The initial seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 1 June stood unchanged at 1.2% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.
The advance seasonally adjusted figure for the insured jobless individuals in the US rose by 2,000 to 1.695 million during the week to 1 June, compared to the preceding week’s upwardly revised 1.693 million.
The provisional unadjusted number of actual initial claims filed under state programmes recorded a total 219,892 in the week to 8 June, jumping by 30,315 claims or 16% from the claims filed in the prior week.
In addition, initial claims were 217,289 in the comparable week last year.
By 1:04 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which traces the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, ticked up by 0.01% to 97.01.