The number of Americans out of work mounted in the latest week as the economy continued to reel following the September 11th attacks, a US government report showed today.
Continued claims for state unemployment benefits for the week ended October 13th - the most recent week for which the data were available - climbed 56,000 to 3.65 million. This was the highest level in over 18 years.
The US Labor Department said the number of initial jobless claims increased by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 504,000 for the week ended October 20th. This was above Wall Street expectations of 497,000.
The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a more reliable measure of employment conditions than the weekly data because it irons out fluctuations, climbed 12,000 to 505,000, a level unseen since March 1991.