India, July 17 -- A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday unexpectedly showed a modest decrease by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended July 12th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell to 221,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised level of 228,000.
Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 235,000 from the 227,000 originally reported for the previous week.
With the unexpected dip, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 216,000 in the week ended April 12th.
However, Nancy Vanden Houten, Lead U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics, said, "We don't read anything into the drop in claims as it was driven by seasonal factors looking for a la...