The U.S. Labor Department released a report indicating an unexpected slight rise in first-time unemployment benefit claims for the week ending January 27th. The Department revealed that the initial jobless claims had risen to 224,000, which was an increase of 9,000 from the restructured figure of 215,000 the previous week.
Contrary to these figures, economists had predicted a decrease in jobless claims to approximately 212,000 from the originally reported 214,000 from the previous week. The less fluctuating four-week moving average also showed a small increase to 207,750, a rise of 5,250 from the previously revised average of 202,500.
