MW: Record number of continuing jobless claims reported
U.S. unemployment lines stretched to the longest on record in recent weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday, a sign that the U.S. labor market continues to worsen. Continuing jobless claims rose by 159,000 in the week ending Jan. 17 to a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the most since the government's records begin in 1967. Meanwhile, the number of new claims for state unemployment benefits rose by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 588,000 in the week ending Jan. 24, just 1,000 below a 26-year high for initial claims set a month ago. The four-week average of new claims - which smooth out distortions caused by bad weather, strikes or the timing of holidays - rose by 24,250 to 542,500.
