Jobless claims data paint bleak picture

The number of laid-off workers continuing to draw unemployment benefits jumped to 4.5 million in late December, and even more Americans are expected to join the ranks of the jobless in 2009.

Although first-time applications for jobless benefits fell last week, economists mostly attributed that to the Christmas holiday and said a more accurate picture of new layoff filings wouldn’t become clear until the holiday season was past -- around mid-January.

All in all, the picture that emerged Wednesday was largely grim and was not expected to improve any time soon.

“It wasn’t a very merry Christmas for most of the labor force, and it doesn’t look like it will be a very happy New Year, either,” said Richard Yamarone, an economist at Argus Research.

The Labor Department’s report showed that people continuing to draw unemployment benefits jumped by 140,000 to 4.5 million for the week ended Dec. 20, the most recent period for which that information was available. The larger-than- expected increase underscored the difficulties the unemployed were having in finding jobs.

That left continued claims at their highest since early December 1982, when the country was emerging from a deep recession, although the labor force has grown by about half since then.

A year ago, the number of people continuing to draw jobless benefits was 2.7 million.

The report also showed the number of workers filing first-time applications for jobless benefits dropped by a seasonally adjusted 94,000 to 492,000 for the week ended Dec. 27.

Although the drop was bigger than economists expected, it was mostly related to seasonal adjustment difficulties and reflected some out-of-work people not making it to unemployment offices to file claims over the Christmas holiday, analysts said.