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

US unemployment claims, which trace layoffs, rose by 4,000 week-on-week to 214,000 claims in the week ended 12 October, compared with the unrevised total of 210,000 the week before, the US Department of Labor said.

That said, layoffs across the US remained close to 50-year low, while they were unlikely to rise even with an economic slowdown.

The more stable 4-week average of claims, which usually offers a more accurate picture of the labour market conditions than the volatile weekly figure, was 214,750 at the unrevised average of 213,750, from the prior week.

The preliminary seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 5 October came in at 1.2%, rising by 0.1% from the preceding week’s unrevised rate.

The seasonally adjusted figure for the jobless individuals already receiving benefits in the US dropped by 10,000 to 1.679 million during the seven days to 5 October, compared to the preceding week’s upwardly revised 1.689 million.

The advance unadjusted number of actual initial claims filed under state programmes totalled 197,841 in the week to 12 October, rising by 9,749 claims or 5.2% from the claims submitted last week.

This came higher than 190,501 initial claims registered the same week last year.

By 1:13 pm GMT, the US dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six key rivals, fell by 0.27% to 97.7400.