In the week ending Oct. 17, 531,000 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 520,000. The 4-week moving average was 532,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.5 percent for the week ending Oct. 10, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.
