Jobless Claims Rose By 9,000 Last Week

There were 429,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed last week, an increase of 9,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

And in further evidence of a weak labor market, it revised up its estimate of first-time claims from that previous week: to 420,000 from the initial estimate of 414,000 for the week ending June 11.

The ETA also said that "the 4-week moving average was 426,250, unchanged from the previous week's revised average of 426,250." The trend is well above the 350,000-or-below level that would normally be the sign of a healthy economy.

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