Washington, DC, October 27, 2005--The Labor Department reported that 24,000 people filed applications for unemployment benefits last week.
These results pushed the total first time claims related to September’s hurricanes to 502,000.
The weekly job losses from Katrina and Rita peaked at 108,000 in mid-September and have been trending lower since that time. However, analysts said Wilma, which hit Florida on Monday, cutting off power to millions of homes, will likely spark a renewed surge in jobless claims in coming weeks.
The 24,000 hurricane-related jobless claims last week were included in total jobless claims of 328,000. The overall figure was down from 356,000 jobless applications for the week ending Oct. 15.
The weekly claims figure for the entire country hit a high of 435,000 in mid-September, a week when hurricane-related claims also peaked at 108,000.
