Jobless Claims Rise for Week

Initial jobless claims rose to 558,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Claims for the week ended Saturday rose from 554,000, but stayed below 600,000 for the sixth straight week, Labor said in its weekly report.

Economists had forecast that claims would drop to 545,000, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, to 565,000, from 556,500 a week earlier, Labor said.

The number of Americans collecting jobless benefits fell by 141,000, to 6.2 million for the previous week ended Aug. 1.