In the week ending Jan. 9, 444,000 Americans filed claims for unemployment insurance coverage for the first time, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
That’s an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 433,000. The 4-week moving average was 440,750, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week.
The insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending Jan. 2, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.
