New Jobless Claims Rise to 551,000

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- Another piece was added to the mosaic that is the unemployment picture this morning, as the Labor Department said that initial weekly jobless claims went higher last week.

According to a report, the number of those seeking unemployment benefits jumped more than expected last week to a seasonally adjusted 551,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 534,000. Estimates before the release forecast initial claims to jump to 535,000 from the previously announced 530,000 total reported.

But the four-week moving average for initial claims, which tends to iron out the wild week-to-week fluctuations in the metric, decreased by 6,250 to 548,000. That marks the figure's lowest total since January.

The number of those continuing on benefit-rolls also decreased to 6.09 million for the week ending September 19 from the prior week's revised 6.16 million total.

Despite it all, though, unemployment continues to be drag on any sentiments of overall economic health. Initial claims figures, for instance, continue to track well higher than averages that typically reflect economic robustness.

Yesterday, a report on private sector unemployment also showed that employers cut 254,000 jobs from their payrolls in September.

On Friday, the Labor Department is expected to release their newest monthly unemployment data, with most expecting the rate to tick higher from the 9.7% posted in August to 9.8%.

Just this week, Windstream(WIN Quote) joined a list of others including Dell(DELL Quote), Monsanto(MON Quote) and Deere & Co.(DE Quote) in announcing layoff plans.

-- Written by Sung Moss in New York

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