Jobless benefits & claims rose significantly last week as The U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday that the number of first-time applicants rose by 12,000 in the week ending Sept. 18. It was the first increase since the week ending Aug. 14. Since then, claims have fallen by an average of 16,750 claims per week.In the current week, 465,000 first-time claims were filed, while the four-week rolling average dropped by 3,250 to 463,250.
The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.6 percent.
