US Unemployment claims rise last week

The US Department of Labor said today that jobless claims in the United States increased more than expected to 219,000 seasonally adjusted applications for the week ending February 22, an increase of 8,000 requests compared to 211,000 in the previous week.

The weekly average of US jobless claims increased during the four weeks to 209.750 thousand while the ongoing jobless claims decreased by 9 thousand to reach 1.724 million applications for the week ending February 15.

Other data released today by the National Association of Realtors showed that the pending home sales index in the United States rose 5.2% to 108.8 points during the month of January and rose year on year by 5.7% compared to the same period last year.