(RTTNews) - The U.S. Labor Department revealed Thursday that initial jobless claims came in at 623,000 for the week ended February 7, down 8,000 from the previous week’s revised total.

The 4-week moving average for initial claims, a statistic that flattens out week-to-week fluctuations in the data, pushed above the 600,000 mark. The figure climbed to 607,500 from the previous week’s level of 583,500, indicating that the overall trend continues to point toward increased layoffs, despite the slight dip in overall claims for the week.

The number of people receiving ongoing unemployment help, a figure known as continuing claims, edged up to 4.810 million for the week ended January 31, the most recent week for which the government has data.

This was up from a revised continuing claims figure of 4.799 million in the previous week.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Releases, USA.

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