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WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 1.1 million Americans filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ending Aug. 15, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday morning. The weekly total was more than the 923,000 claims economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected. The most recent figure is an increase of 135,000 claims from the previous week, which was the first time since the coronavirus outbreak that claims totaled fewer than 1 million.
The four-week moving average decreased by 79,000 to just under 1.2 million claims. Continuing claims, for which data is a week behind, totaled more than 14.8 million for the week ending Aug. 8, a decrease of 636,000 from the previous week.