Nearly 5 million Americans continued to draw jobless benefits late last month, and new requests again exceeded 600,00 as companies lay off scores of workers amid a deepening recession. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of initial jobless benefit claims dropped to a seasonally-adjusted 623,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 631,000 the previous week. The latest tally still was above analysts' expectations of 610,000 claims. And in a sign that laid-off workers are having difficulty finding new work, the number of people claiming benefits for more than one week rose to 4.81 million from 4.78 million, the highest total since 1967. The continuing claims data lag new claims by a week. An additional 1.5 million people are receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program approved by Congress last year, bringing the total number of recipients to 6.3 million. Continuing claims are up sharply from a year ago, when the figure was 2.7 million. In slightly better economic news, the Commerce Department reported Thursday that retail sales jumped 1 percent in January, reversing six months of decline and defying expectations of a 0.8 percent drop. The rise in sales follows a 2.7 percent plunge in December, which marked the weakest holiday selling season since at least 1969. Economists consider jobless claims a timely, if volatile, indicator of the health of the labor markets and broader economy. A year ago, initial claims stood at 339,000.
