US Initial Jobless Claims Lingered Near 10-Month High Last Week

Initial applications for US unemployment benefits pulled back from a 10-month high last week, in data that tend to be volatile around holidays and school breaks.

Initial claims decreased by 5,000 to 238,000 in the week ended June 15, after reaching a 10-month high the previous week, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 235,000.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, rose for a seventh straight week to 1.82 million as of June 8, just 1,000 shy of the highest level since ...