Although manufacturing layoffs increased in Tennessee, Minnesota, Georgia,Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky, initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits across the U.S. fell by 6,000 last week to 316,000, the U.S. Labor Department reported on September 28.
Claims totaled 322,000 in the previous week.
The department's four-week moving average of initial claims also fell in the week ending September 23. The four-week average was 315,500, a decline of 500 claims from the previous week's revised average of 316,000.
