UNITED STATED

New US claims for unemployment benefits climbed for a second straight week but remained below the level of 500,000, government data showed Thursday.

New claims in the week ending December 12 rose to 480,000 from the prior week's revised 473,000, the Labor Department said.

Most private economists had expected a drop in seasonally adjusted new claims to 465,000.

Still, the report highlighted stablization in the ailing jobs market.

The four-week moving average, a less volatile indicator than the week-to-week figures, fell to 467,500 from the previous week's revised 472,750.

The insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.9 percent in the week ending December 5 from the previous week.

The number of people receiving jobless benefits in the week ending December 5 was 5,186,000, a slight rise from the previous week's revised 5,181,000.

The unemployment rate stood at 10.0 percent in November, down from 10.2 percent in October.

Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said the unexpected rise in claims was "disappointing," but the numbers would be erratic through mid-January because of holiday seasonal adjustments.

"The underlying trend in claims is strongly downwards and, while we think the rate of decline will level off sooner or later, there's no reason to expect a sustained rebound," he said. (AFP)