India, July 24 -- The Labor Department released a report on Thursday unexpectedly showing another modest decrease by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended July 19th.
The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 217,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 221,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 227,000.
With the unexpected dip, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since hitting 216,000 in the week ended April 12th.
"Initial claims have been noisy over the last few weeks due to the end of the school year and auto plant shutdowns," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics. "Sorting through the noise, initial claims are still co...