Jobless Claims Increase for Week by 18,000

Initial jobless claims fell by 18,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Claims for the week ended Saturday rose to 366,000, Labor said.

Economists had forecast claims would fall to 380,000, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 376,500, from 381,000.

The number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits fell to 3.122 million for the previous week ended July 5.