India, June 26 -- A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell in the week ended June 21st.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims dipped to 236,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 246,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to come in unchanged compared to the 245,000 originally reported for the previous week.
"Initial jobless claims slipped in the latest week, but layoff notices suggest we could see a pickup in job losses and initial claims in the weeks ahead," said Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.
She added, "For now, we don't think the labor market is weak enough to prompt the ...