The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week came back down to more recent ranges after a big jump the week before due to hurricanes in the Southeast. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless claims fell by by 19,000 to 241,000 for the week of Oct. 12. That’s well below the 262,000 analysts were expecting. Applications for jobless benefits are widely considered representative of U.S. layoffs in a given week. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits rose by 9,000 to about 1.87 million for the week of Oct. 5.
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