U.S. weekly jobless claims rise unexpectedly

The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first timejumped in the latest period, new numbers released Thursday showed.

The U.S. Department of Labour said thatAmerican initial jobless claims, a well-followed weekly employment market indicator, rose 2.6 per cent, or 15,000 applicants, for the week ended Aug. 15.

That meant that 576,000 Americans asked for employment assistance for the first time in that week.

Economists had been expecting a drop toapproximately 550,000.

Based upon a four-week moving average,the number of initial jobless claims rose to 570,000, up more than 4,000 compared to the previous week's average.

(The four-week average basically shows a monthly trend and can smooth out one-week jumps or contractions in the indicator.)

The faltering jobs claims figures was the second piece of poor news in two days for the U.S. economy.

Earlier in the week, U.S. housing starts for July dropped unexpectedly by one per cent afterJune and Mayhad shown large gains in housing activity.

"Despite some signs of improvement, housing activity still remains very weak," said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at RBC Economics Research.

Both major U.S. stock markets shrugged off the poor jobless claims figures in early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Index edged upone-third of a percentage point, or 33 points, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ rose 0.75 per cent, reaching 1,984.12 points.