Washington, D.C., October 6, 2005--First-time claims for state unemployment benefits rose in the latest week, according to the Labor Department. Initial claims for the week ending Oct. 1 rose 21,000 to 390,000.
Economists had expected claims to rise to 361,000.
Claims in the previous week were revised to a decrease of 66,000 to 369,000 compared with the initial estimate of a fall of 79,000 to 356,000.
The four-week average of initial claims rose 15,750 to 404,500. Meanwhile, the number of Americans receiving state jobless benefits rose 118,000 to 2.91 million in the week ending Sept. 24. The four-week moving average of continuing claims rose 83,750 to 2.73 million.
