Washington, DC, December 21, 2006--The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits climbed back in the latest week, while the number of workers continuing to claim benefits rose to its highest level since the beginning of the year.
The Labor Department reported that 315,000 workers filed initial claims for jobless benefits in the week ending December 16, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week.
Initial claims fell for the first two weeks of December. Holidays between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day can skew the data, because the normal filing pattern can be disrupted.
Continuing jobless claims, meanwhile, rose to 2.52 million, the highest since January.
The four-week moving average of new claims fell by 2,000 to 325,750 during the week ending December 9, the government report said.
The four-week average of continuing claims was the highest since February 25, according to the report. It rose to 2.49 million during the week ending December 9, up by 21,250.
