While the number of people filing first-time claims for jobless benefits rose by 15,000 last week, the increase was less than economists expected, Bloomberg News reports.
But data on the applications are still being skewed a bit by changes in the computer systems in two states: California and Nevada. Bloomberg writes that "a Labor Department spokesman said it could be a week or two before the state employment agencies are able to catch up on applications."
According to Bloomberg, economists thought we'd hear there were about 330,000 claims filed in the week ended Sept. 14.
Heres a look at the latest figures, released Thursday morning by the Employment and Training Administration:
-- An estimated 309,000 first-time claims were filed last week. At that level, claims are around lows not seen since mid-2007.
-- The figure for the previous week was revised slightly, to 294,000 from the previously reported 292,000.
-- "The 4-week moving average was 314,750, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 321,750."
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