Mubasher: The number of unemployed individuals applying for benefits dropped last week, weekly official figures showed on Thursday.

US unemployment claims, which gauges layoffs, dropped by 12,000 week-on-week to 209,000 claims in the week ended 17 August, compared with the upwardly revised total of 221,000 a week earlier, the US Department of Labor said.

The more stable 4-week average of claims, which usually offers a more accurate insight into the labour market conditions, edged up by 500 to 214,500 from the prior week’s upwardly revised average of 214,000.

The preliminary seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 10 August stood unchanged at 1.2% from the prior week’s unrevised rate.

The seasonally adjusted figure for the jobless individuals already receiving benefits in the US jumped by 39,000 to 1.674 million during the seven days to 10 August, compared to the preceding week’s upwardly revised 1.728 million.

The advance unadjusted number of actual initial claims submitted under state programmes reached a total of 169,613 in the week to 17 August, falling by 17,301 claims or 9.3% from the claims filed last week.

Meanwhile, this came lower than 173,331 initial claims registered the same week last year.

By 12:32 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which gauges the greenback against a six major rivals, stood still at 98.29.