Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US rose to 225,000 last week, but remain near historic lows, according to data from the US Department of Labor (DOL) released today and cited by Lusa.

In the week ending December 24, there were 9,000 more applications for unemployment benefits.

Continuing claims rose to 1.7 million in the week ending December 17.

The average for the last four weeks was 221,000 requests.