Initial Jobless Claims Rise by 16,000

Washington, DC, July 3, 2008--Initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 16,000 last week to 404,000, only the second time in this cycle that initial claims have been above 400,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week average of new claims rose to 10,250 to 390,500, the highest level since October 2005.

Continuing claims rose to a four-year high of 3.11 million, evidence that jobs are increasingly hard to find.