Jobless Claims Increase for Week

Initial jobless claims grew by 8,000 last week, the largest increase in seven weeks, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Claims increased to 480,000, in contrast to the decline to 455,000 that had been forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported. Last week's claims were originally reported as 470,000.

The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, grew to 468,750 in the week ended Saturday.

Continuing jobless claims for the previous week ended Jan. 23 were little changed at 4.6 million, Labor said.