U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise to 1.41 Million

New claims for unemployment benefits rose to 1.41 million last week, data from the Department of Labor showed Thursday. This is the 18th consecutive week of initial claims above 1 million. Prior to March, initial claims had never risen as high as 700,000. Economists had forecast 1.3 million claims. The prior week was initially reported as 1.3 million claims. The Labor Department revised that figure up by 7,000. Claims hit a record 6.87 million for the week of March 27. Until this week, each subsequent week has seen claims decline. Continuing claims during the week ending July 11 fell to...