New jobless claims increase more than expected

• New jobless claims increase more than expected AP – 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON – New claims for jobless benefits increased more than expected last week, reflecting continued weakness in the labor market in the new year.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that first-time requests for unemployment insurance jumped to a seasonally adjusted 524,000 in the week ending Jan. 10, from an upwardly revised figure of 470,000 the previous week. Analysts had expected 500,000 new claims.

The increase is partly due to a flood of requests from newly-laid off people who delayed filing claims over the holidays, a Labor Department analyst said.

The rise comes after two weeks of declines that economists said largely reflected those holiday-related distortions in the data. Analysts have said that retailers did not hire as many temporary seasonal workers this year, due to the recession, and so there weren't as many subsequent layoffs.

But the jump in this week's numbers could signal the resumption of an upward trend in claims that was evident last year.

Initial claims reached their highest level in 26 years three weeks ago when the department said 589,000 people filed new claims. That was the highest level since November 1982, when the economy was emerging from a steep recession, though the labor force has grown by about half since then.