The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected pullback by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended June 24th.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 239,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week's revised level of 265,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 270,000 from the 264,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The upwardly revised figure for the previous week reflected the most jobless claims since the week ended October 23, 2021.
