Mubasher: The number of unemployed individuals in the US who applied for benefits fell last week, according to a weekly report released on Thursday.

US unemployment claims dropped by 13,000 week-on-week to 209,000 claims in the week ended 6 July, compared with the upwardly revised level of 222,000 in the previous week, the US Department of Labor said.

The more stable 4-week average of claims declined by 3,250 to 219,250 from the preceding week’s upwardly revised average of 222,500.

The initial seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 29 June remained unchanged at 1.2% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.

The seasonally adjusted figure for the insured jobless individuals in the US climbed by 27,000 to 1.723 million during the week to 29 June, compared to the preceding week’s upwardly revised 1.696 million.

The preliminary unadjusted number of actual initial claims filed under state programmes recorded a total of 232,688 in the week to 6 July, rising by 8,160 claims or 3.6% from the claims filed in the preceding week.

This came lower than the total of 264,869 initial claims recorded the comparable week last year.

By 12:48 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of six major peers, fell by 0.21% to 96.91.