Washington - More people submitted new claims for unemployment insurance, as laid-off workers who were prevented from filing because of Hurricane Isabel applied.
For the workweek that ended Saturday, new applications rose a seasonally adjusted 13,000 to a two-week high of 399,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
New claims hit a high this year of 459,000 in April. Although layoffs have eased somewhat, economists said the current level still points to a sluggish labor market.
"There are indications that the hemorrhaging of jobs is slowing down," said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "But the labor market is still in a crawl."
Mayland said he believes economic growth eventually will translate into job creation, but probably not until later this year. "Companies are working existing workers very, very hard," he said, referring to productivity gains that let businesses to produce more with fewer employees.
Economists said they believe companies will wait until profits grow and they have more confidence in the recovery before they go on a hiring spree.
The unemployment rate, 6.1%, is expected to nudge to 6.2% for September. The economy also is expected to have lost around 25,000 jobs that month, which would be the eighth consecutive month of job losses. The government is to release today the September employment report.
In other economic news, factory orders dropped 0.8% in August, the first decline in four months, the Commerce Department said.
On Wall Street, investors took the latest batch of economic news in stride. The Dow Jones industrials gained 18.60 points. The broader market also finished higher. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 3.97; the Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 2.02; and the Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, rose 2.88.
The drop in factory orders came after a solid 2% increase in July. It is believed to be a temporary rough patch rather than a sign of a backslide ahead, analysts said.
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