Jobless claims jump as Senate prepares to extend benefits

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The number of people seeking jobless benefits for the first time unexpectedly jumped, the government reported on Thursday, suggesting the labor market was still feeling its way out of the recession.

The Labor Department reported that requests for jobless benefits rose by 24,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the largest figure since late February. It was the second consecutive week that claims increased.

Government statistics indicate the number of claims has been improving over time, with the peak of 651,000 in March 2009. Still, unemployment has remained stubbornly high, a bad sign in this midterm-election year with polls showing the economy is the main concern among voters.

Also increasing was the number of people continuing to apply for unemployment benefits, up to 4.64 million from 4.57 million.

That figure is low since it doesn’t include those who have used up their 26 weeks of usual unemployment help and moved on to the supplemental unemployment program of 73 weeks, paid by the federal government as an anti-recession measure.

Just fewer than 6-million people were receiving extended benefits at the beginning of April.

Meanwhile, the Senate could act as soon as Thursday on a bill that would restore jobless benefits to more than 400,000 people who missed unemployment checks because of a dispute between Democrats and Republicans over funding.

The $18-billion measure is a temporary extension through June 2 to allow time to negotiate a longer-term solution.

Republicans had argued that the cost of the benefits should come from new revenues or from cuts in existing programs. Democrats insisted the added money was emergency spending and thus exempt from pay-as-you-go rules.

-- Michael Muskal

Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal