Jobless Claims still on the rise, exceeding expectations

The US is paying benefits to nearly five million people, who do not have jobs. Unemployed workers who are receiving benefits came to an all time high reaching up to five million at the beginning of February. Jobless claims linger well above the projections of 600,000 from the Federal Reserve. Marking the fourth consecutive week were those receiving benefits has been at a record high of 4.99 million and rising. The complexity people are having is not finding another job, which means benefits are forced to be offered longer. An additional 1.5 million people are receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program that congress approved last year. This number added to the already increasing number of people receiving unemployment benefits reaches 6.54 million. New applications for unemployment are pouring in and total 627,000 in last week alone. This is more than economists expected.

The claims also are the highest tally since October 1982 when the economy was emerging from a steep recession, even though the work force has almost doubled since then. More business are continuing to make layoffs and cut spending which is heightening concerns on the recession currently the longest in a quarter century. The Fed released a new economic forecast that reduced it current growth forecast for 2009. The forecast also increased the unemployment rate projections. The new forecast predicts unemployment to reach among 8.5% and 8.8% instead of the previous prediction of 7.6%. The President was in Denver this week to sign into law a stimulus program of $787 billion and then in Arizona for a $75 billion program for the mortgage foreclosures which is said to help the economy back from this recession.

Source: Fox News