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WASHINGTON, D.C. — A total of 861,000 Americans filed for unemployment assistance for the week that ended Feb. 13, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. The amount of initial jobless claims exceeded the 773,000 figure that economists surveyed by Dow Jones predicted and is an increase from last week’s revised amount of 848,000. CNBC reports this week’s total is the highest amount of weekly claims in a month. The four-week moving average declined to 833,250 claims, a 3,500 difference from the revised average for the previous four weeks. Continuing claims, for which data lags a week, decreased to approximately 4.5 million.