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The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week, but the total number of people receiving benefits fell to the lowest level in eight months.
U.S. jobless claims applications for the week ending Dec. 6 rose 44,000 to 236,000 from 192,000 the previous week. labor department Reported on Thursday. That exceeded analysts’ forecast of 213,000.
The total number of Americans who filed for jobless benefits fell by 99,000 to 1.84 million in the past week ending Nov. 29, the government said. This is the lowest level of claims since mid-April.
Applications for unemployment aid are viewed as a proxy for layoffs and are a close to real-time indicator of the health of the job market.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some week-to-week volatility, rose by 2,000 to 216,750.