The number of initial unemployment claims jumped to a much higher than expected 626,000 in the week ending January 31, according to the Department of Labor. That's up from a revised 591,000 the previous week and its highest level since the last week of October 1982, when claims reached 637,000 unemployed.Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected the number to reach 580,000 in the latest week.
The four-week moving average for a total of 582,250 claims per week, compared with the previous week's revised 543,250 figure.
The number of workers receiving unemployment checks for a week or more rose to a record 4788000 in the week ending January 24, the most recent data available. That tops the previous record of 4,768,000 weeks.
The four-week moving average for continuing claims was 4672000, compared to the previous week's revised average of 4,628,000 mobile.
The number comes before the government in January unemployment report due Friday. The unemployment rate is expected to jump to 7.5% in January compared to 7.2% the previous month, according to a consensus estimate from Briefing.com. It is expected that employers have cut 500,000 jobs in the month.