U.S. jobless claims rise by 20,000

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) —

The U.S. Labor Department said first-time jobless benefits claims rose by 20,000 to 362,000 in the week that ended Saturday.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose from a slightly revised 342,000 from the previous week. Previously, last week’s claims were reported as 341,000 with a decline of 27,000 from the prior week.

This week’s reversal retracts 20,000 of the 27,000 decline.

The four-week rolling average for the week rose to 360,750, up 8,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 352,750.

The largest increases in claims for the week ending Feb. 9 were in Kansas with a jump of 2,344 and Puerto Rico with a gain of 492. The largest declines were in California and New York with drops of 4,830 and 4,401, respectively.