Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Jump 31,000 to 473,000

The U.S. economy suffered a setback on the employment front for the week ending Feb. 13, as jobless claims gave back much of the previous week's large improvement, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. A Bloomberg News economists survey had expected jobless claims to total 440,000.

However, the more-telling four-week moving average dipped 1,500 to 467,500, while continuing claims were unchanged at 4.563 million.