UPDATED:
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time surged unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted 626,000 for the week ended Saturday, the Labor Department reported Thursday — the highest level since October 1982.
The number of those applying for unemployment insurance jumped 35,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised figure of 591,000, the department said. Analysts had expected the initial jobless claims number to be no more than 583,000.
The surge came after major companies announced that they would be dismissing tens of thousands of workers in the weeks ahead because of the worsening recession, now in its 14th month.
Among them was Caterpillar Inc., the maker of giant earth-moving and mining machinery, which said it was cutting 20,000 jobs.
At the same time, the department reported that the number of Americans who continue to receive unemployment benefits went up slightly to nearly 4.8 million, the most since the agency started keeping records in 1967. The number had been 4.77 million a week earlier.
The report said the four-week moving average of claims, which makes the jobless numbers less erratic, rose to 582,250 from 543,250 a week earlier, the Labor Department said.
The official unemployment rate stands at 7.2 percent, though that number is likely to increase when the Labor Department issues its monthly report Friday. Some economists have warned that the jobless rate may go as high as the low double digits before the economy turns around.
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