Initial Jobless Claims Continue To Rise

Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2009--Initial jobless claims surged last week, the Labor Department said.

First time applications for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 589,000 in the week ended Jan. 17 from a revised 527,000 the prior week.

It was the highest level of initial claims since a matching reading in the week of Dec. 20 and beat analysts' forecasts for a rise to 540,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 524,000 the week before.

The last time claims were higher was in 1982, when they notched a weekly rise of 612,000.