Last week, Missouri saw a rise in initial unemployment benefit filings as compared to the preceding week, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor. New jobless claims increased to 3,136 in the week ending December 16, from the previous week’s 2,961. Nationally, there was also a rise in U.S. unemployment claims to 205,000, an increase of 2,000 claims from the week before. Oklahoma reported the largest percentage increase in weekly claims, while Vermont observed the largest percentage decrease in new claims. These figures are a part of the data released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly unemployment insurance claims report.