While Nerobama Fiddles, More Jobs Are Lost

February 26, 2010 (LPAC)—According to the Labor Department, the number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to a three-month high just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks.

There were 496,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Feb. 20, up 22,000 from a revised 474,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. The prior week, there were 442,000 claims filed. The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 473,750, up 6,000 from the previous week's revised average of 467,750. The government said 4,617,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Feb. 13, the most recent data available. That's up 6,000 from the preceding week's revised 4,611,000 claims. The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims rose by 4,250 to 4,600,750 from the previous week's revised 4,596,500.

At the same time orders for durable goods, excluding transportation, "unexpectedly" fell 0.6 percent, the most since August, while a measure of bookings for business equipment showed its biggest decrease in nine months, the Commerce Department in Washington said.

More than 1 million people will run out of benefits after Feb. 28 if the application deadline is not extended.