Financial Times FT.com

US jobless claims unexpectedly jump

By Alan Rappeport in New York

Published: May 14 2009 14:27 | Last updated: May 14 2009 14:47

The number of first time unemployment benefits claimed by US workers unexpectedly rose last week, according to labour department figures, dashing hopes that new claims were starting to level off.

New jobless claims climbed by 32,000 to 637,000 in the week ending May 9, the labour department said on Thursday. That was worse than economists expected and was attributed largely to auto-related job cuts due to the idling of Chrysler plants.

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