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Longer-term jobless benefits hit 25-year high

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-07 00:57

WASHINGTON  -- The number of out-of-work Americans continuing to draw unemployment benefits has surged to a 25-year high, while shoppers turned extra frugal, further proof of the damage from sinking economy, credit problems and financial stresses.

Job seekers line up to speak to a representative of New York Life company at a job fair sponsored by Monster.com at a hotel in Newark, N.J., Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. Weekly jobless claims dip to 481,000, while long-term claims jump to highest level in 25 years, the Labor Department announced Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. [Agencies]

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people continuing to draw unemployment benefits jumped by 122,000 to 3.84 million in late October. It was the highest level since late February 1983, when the country was struggling to recover from a long and painful recession.

New filings for jobless benefits last week dipped to 481,000, a still-elevated level that suggests companies are in a cost-cutting mode.

Democrats in Congress are pushing to include an extension of unemployment benefits in a new stimulus package, which could be taken up this month. Benefits typically last 26 weeks.

Congress approved a 13-week extension of benefits in June, and the department said about 773,000 additional people claimed benefits through that program for the week ending Oct. 18, the most recent data available. That extension is scheduled to end next June.

Americans hit by layoffs, shrinking nest eggs and other stresses are pulling back even more, sending sales at many big retailers down in what may have been the weakest October in decades. That further darkened the outlook for the holiday sales season.

Target Corp. and Costco were among the many retailers reporting sales declines last month. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, however, logged a sales gain.

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