In the week ending Jan. 16, 482,000 Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance coverage for the first time, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
That’s an increase of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 446,000. The 4-week moving average was 448,250, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week.
The insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending Jan. 9, unchanged from the prior week.
