The number of people in the United States continuing to seek unemployment benefits has risen sharply, government data released Thursday showed. The new figures from the U.S. Labor Department suggest that the unemployed are finding it increasingly difficult to find a new job after being laid off. The Labor Department also reported that initial applications for unemployment insurance dropped by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 467,000 for the week ending January 3. Wall Street economists expected initial claims to increase, but the new figure partly reflects the shortened New Year's holiday week. The four-week average of initial claims, which accounts for fluctuations but also includes the shortened holiday weeks, fell by 27,000 to 525,750. The number of people continuing to claim jobless benefits jumped unexpectedly by 101,000 to 4.61 million. Analysts had predicted the figure would rise to 4.5 million. Unemployment figures due out Friday are expected to show that the United States lost a net total of 500,000 jobs in December, bringing total job losses last year to 2.4 million. The job cuts are expected to send the unemployment rate to 7 percent in December, up from 6.7 percent the previous month. That would be the highest level since June 1993. Three U.S. states said earlier this week that their online and phone filing systems for unemployment benefits crashed due to the heavy volume of first-time filers.
