Jobless Claims Rise Again, Thwarting Recovery

Once again, the number of people filing for unemployment insurance increased to 436,000 last week, a jump of 26,000 from the previous week.

Economists had predicted a more modest 16,000 rise.

The long-term trend is still slightly downward, with an average of 431,000 people filing claims over each of the last four weeks. That’s the lowest level of activity since 2008.

The national employment report from the government is due tomorrow; it’s expected to show that the economy added about 150,000 jobs but that the unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent.