US jobless claims above 600,000 in week

WASHINGTON: US jobless claims remained at a high level in the past week, with 620,000 new filings, government data showed Thursday in a sign of severe stress on the economy and labor market.

The Labor Department said the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the week to February 7 fell slightly from a revised 631,000 in the prior week that was the highest level since October 1982.

The four-week moving average was 607,500, an increase of 24,000 from the previous week's revised average.

The labor market, one of the best indicators of economic momentum, has been under heavy pressure from the global economic crisis as more firms slash workers amid a downward spiral.

The government's most recent monthly update showed the US jobless rate in January at 7.6 per cent as 598,000 jobs were cut.

Thursday's weekly figures "reinforce the impression that the underlying pace of layoffs is continuing to rise rapidly, setting the scene for even bigger declines in payrolls," said Ian Shepherdson, economist at High Frequency Economics.

The latest data showed the insured unemployment rate was 3.6 per cent for the week ending January 31, unchanged from the prior week. As of the end of January, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits was 4.8 million, an increase of 11,000 from the preceding week.