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A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday unexpectedly showed a slight increase in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended May 7th.
The Labor Department said initial jobless claims crept up to 203,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level of 202,000.
The uptick surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to dip to 195,000 from the 200,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The report showed the less volatile four-week moving average also edged up to 192,750, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week's revised average of 188,500.
