U.S. weekly jobless claims climb more than forecast

The data from the Labor Department revealed on Thursday the number of applications for unemployment benefits jump more than forecast last week as the jobless rolls continued to increase due to the coronavirus shutdown

According to the report, the initial claims for unemployment benefits climbed by 6,606,000 for the week ended April 4. That brings the number of job losses over the past three weeks to 16.8 million.

Economists had expected 5,250,000 new claims last week.

Claims for the prior week were revised upwardly to 6,867,000 from the initial estimate of 6,648,000.

Meanwhile, the four-week moving average of claims jumped to 4,265,500 from 2,666,75o in the previous week.