Jobless Claims Rise for Week

Initial jobless claims rose to 576,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Claims for the week ended Saturday rose from 561,000, but stayed below 600,000 for the seventh straight week, Labor said in its weekly report.

Economists had forecast that claims would drop to 550,000, Bloomberg reported.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, climbed to 570,000, from 565,750 a week earlier, Labor said.

The number of Americans collecting jobless benefits rose slightly to 6.24 million for the previous week ended Aug. 8.