The number of new U.S. claims for jobless benefits fell unexpectedly last week, but the number of people continuing to claim benefits reached a 26-year high, AP reported. The Labor Department says initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 509,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 530,000 for the previous week. That's significantly below analysts' estimates of 537,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. But the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits reached 4.09 million, the highest level since December 1982, when the economy was in a steep recession.
