By Amara Omeokwe and Harriet Torry 
 

WASHINGTON--The number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits decreased last week, marking the first decline in four weeks.

-Initial jobless claims were down 10,000 to 210,000 in the week ending Oct. 5. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected 218,000 claims.

-The four-week moving average, a less volatile reading than first-time claims that shows the trend over the past month, was 213,750. That was up from the previous week's revised 212,750 average.

-Continuing claims, those filed by workers unemployed for longer than a week, rose by 29,000 to 1.684 million in the week ending Sept. 28.

The Labor Department report on jobless claims can be accessed at: https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

Write to Amara Omeokwe at amara.omeokwe@wsj.com and Harriet Torry at harriet.torry@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 10, 2019 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)