Jobless Claims Rise for Week; Cuts for February Decline
he number of workers filing initial unemployment claims rose by 15,000 last week to 294,000 and total jobless claims fell to a five-year low, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Meanwhile, announced U.S. job cuts this month dropped 19% from a year earlier and 15.5% from January, according to a report issued Thursday by job-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Increased cuts and higher unemployment can be bad signs for the trucking industry because they can affect industrial production and consumer spending, which provide business for truckers.
The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, rose to 287,250, from 282,000.
ontinuing jobless claims for the previous week ended Feb. 18 fell 2,000 to 2.486 million a week prior to that.
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