Weekly U.S. jobless claims rise 15,000 to 381,000

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)
The number of Americans who filed requests for jobless benefits rose by 15,000 last week to 381,000, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.
Claims from two weeks ago were revised up to 366,000 from 364,000.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had projected claims would rise to a seasonally adjusted 374,000 in the week ended Dec. 24.
The average of new claims over the past four weeks, meanwhile, dropped by 5,750 to 375,000, which is the lowest level since June 2008.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said continuing claims increased by 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.60 million in the week ended Dec. 17.
Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag. About 7.23 million people received some kind of state or federal benefit in the week ended Dec. 10, up 79,385 from the prior week.
Total claims are reported with a two-week lag