Jobless Claims Up Last Week
Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims increased by 44,000 to 357,000 in the week ending February 10, the Labor Department said. It's the highest level since late November. And it's the largest weekly increase since September 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
A "small portion," less than a quarter, of the increase was due to inclement weather in the Midwest and Northeast, a Labor Department spokesman said.
The four-week average of new claims--which smoothes out one-time events such as holidays or weather--rose by 17,500 to 326,250, the highest since December.
Meanwhile, the number of people collecting unemployment benefits in the week ending Feb. 3 rose by 71,000 to 2.56 million, the most in 13 months. The four-week average of continuing claims rose by 18,000 to 2.52 million, the most in 12 months.
The insured unemployment rate--the portion of all workers who are covered by unemployment insurance who are collecting benefits--rose to 2% from 1.9%.
Compared with the same time last year, initial claims are up about 11% while continuing claims are down about 1%.
Initial claims represent job destruction, while the level of continuing claims indicates how hard or easy it is for displaced workers to find new jobs.
Long-term unemployment has been stubbornly high during this expansion, despite the decrease in the unemployment rate to 4.5%. In January, about 30% of the 7 million official unemployed people had been out of work longer than 15 weeks, while 16%, or 1.1 million, had been out of work longer than 27 weeks.
Typically, unemployment benefits run out after 26 weeks for those who are eligible. Those who exhaust their unemployment benefits are still counted as unemployed if they are looking for work.