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

US unemployment claims, which gauges layoffs, increased by 3,000 week-on-week to 213,000 claims in the week ended 21 September, compared with the upwardly revised total of 210,000 the week before, 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, went down by 750 to 212,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised average of 212,750.

The provisional seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 14 September fell to 1.1% from the preceding week’s unrevised rate of 1.2%.

The seasonally adjusted figure for the jobless individuals already receiving benefits in the US dropped by 15,000 to 1.650 million during the seven days to 14 September, compared to the previous week’s upwardly revised 1.665 million.

The initial unadjusted number of actual initial claims submitted under state programmes hit a total of 174,260 in the week to 21 September, rising by 1,143 claims or 0.7% from the claims filed last week.

This came higher than 172,930 initial claims recorded the comparable week last year.

By 12:55 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which traces the greenback against a basket six key peers, ticked down by 0.05% to 98.98.