Initial Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected

Washington, DC, Oct. 23, 2008--Initial jobless claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, a sign the deepening credit crisis is hurting employment.

Initial jobless claims increased by 15,000 to a larger-than- forecast 478,000 in the week ended Oct. 18, from a revised 463,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. The number of people staying on benefit rolls was little changed, holding near the highest level in five years.

Initial claims were estimated to rise to 468,000 from 461,000 initially reported for the prior week, according to the median projection of 39 economists.

Firings related to Hurricane Ike in Texas accounted for about 12,000 of last week's claims, a Labor spokesman said.

The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile measure, fell to 480,250 from 484,750, today's report showed. So far this year, weekly claims have averaged 388,000, compared with an average 321,000 for all of 2007.

The number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits decreased to 3.72 million in the week ended Oct. 11, from 3.726 million the prior week that was the highest since mid 2003. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, was unchanged at 2.8 percent. These data are reported with a one-week lag.