Jobless Claims Soar to 26 Year High

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — The number of Americans filing first- time claims for unemployment benefits surged more than forecast last week to a 26-year high, a sign companies are stepping up firings as the recession deepens.

Initial jobless claims increased 58,000 to 573,000 in the week ended Dec. 6, the highest level since November 1982, from a revised 515,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of workers staying on benefit rolls reached 4.429 million, also the most since 1982.

Employers are slashing payrolls as consumers retrench and credit stays frozen. Mounting job losses and falling home prices increase the likelihood that the U.S. recession will extend well into 2009, adding impetus to President-elect Barack Obama’s call for an economic stimulus package of unprecedented size.

“The labor market is facing its worst crisis since 1982, and it is certainly not over yet,” Harm Bandholz, a U.S. economist at UniCredit Markets and Investment Banking in New York, said before the report.

“One of the most important tasks of the newly elected government is, therefore, to help distressed homeowners and to stimulate the labor market.”