After reporting a modest uptick in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing another slight increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended June 24th.
The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 244,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 242,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 240,000 from the 241,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average fell to 242,250, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 245,000.
The report also said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose by 6,000 to 1.948 million in the week ended June 17th.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims climbed to 1,938,750, an increase of 7,250 from the previous week's revised average of 1,931,500.
Next Friday, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly report on the employment situation for June.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Forex News
June 19, 2026 16:46 ET Major central banks continued to dominate the economic news flow this week too, led by the Federal Reserve, as they announced their latest policy decisions. The Federal Reserve policy session was in focus as it was the first to be led by the new chief Kevin Warsh. In Europe, central banks of the U.K. and Switzerland announced their rate decisions. In Asia, the Bank of Japan drew attention for its policy moves, while data out of China threw some light on the state of the economy.