Initial Jobless Claims Fall But Still Too High

Washington, DC, Oct. 9, 2008--Initial jobless claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week from a seven-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, though they remain at elevated levels that indicate recession.

Initial claims dropped 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 478,000, the department said, the same level that Wall Street economists expected.

The department said Hurricanes Ike and Gustav were responsible for adding about 20,000 claims on a seasonally adjusted basis. That's down from approximately 45,000 the previous week.

The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 482,500, the highest since October 2001. The number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment benefits rose to 3.66 million, above analysts' estimates of 3.6 million. That's the highest total in more than five years.

The housing slump and resulting credit crisis has hit the economy hard, causing consumers to cut spending and businesses to eliminate jobs.

Jobless claims have come in above 400,000, a level economists consider a sign of recession, for 12 straight weeks. Claims stood at 316,000 a year ago.

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday joined many private economists and predicted the U.S. economy will contract in the final quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2009, meeting one classic definition of a recession.

Many economists expect that consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of economic activity, will decline in the July-September quarter. That would be the first quarterly decline in 17 years.