By Jeffry Bartash WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The number of people applying for new unemployment benefits climbed above 300,000 again and could rise a bit more in the next few weeks as a pair of states work through a backlog of claims stemming from the Labor Day holiday and updates to their computer systems. Initial jobless claims climbed by 15,000 in the week ended Sept. 14 from a slightly revised 294,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected claims to jump to 338,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. A Labor official said California and Nevada made changes to their computer systems at the start of September that resulted in processing delays of some claims applications. Those applications could show up in the next few weeks and possibly push new claims higher. The current level of jobless claims is the lowest since the fall of 2007. The average of new claims over the past month, a more reliable gauge than the volatile weekly number, dropped by 7,000 to 314,750. That's the lowest level since October 2007. Also, the government said continuing claims decreased by 28,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.79 million in the week ended Sept. 7. Continuing claims reflect the number of people already receiving benefits. Initial claims from two weeks ago, meanwhile, were revised up slightly from an original reading of 292,000, based on more complete data collected at the state level.

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