U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb To Six-Month High

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly increased in the week ended January 16th, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 293,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 283,000.

The increase came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to drop to 275,000 from the 284,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the unexpected increase, jobless claims rose to their highest level since reaching 296,000 in the week ended July 4th.

The Labor Department said the four-week moving average also rose to 285,000, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average of 278,500.

The increase lifted the less volatile four-week moving average to its highest level since a matching reading in the week ended April 18th.

Meanwhile, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, fell by 56,000 to 2.208 million in the week ended January 9th.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims still climbed to 2,227,750, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 2,224,500.