Jobless Claims Fall Following Post-Katrina Surges

he number of U.S. workers filing initial unemployment benefits fell by 79,000 last week following two weeks of big increases in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Labor Department said Thursday.

laims fell to 356,000 from a revised 435,000 the week before, Labor said. The previous week had originally been reported at 432,000.

About 60,000 of last week’s claims were from people directly affected by Katrina, Bloomberg reported.

The number of people filing continuing jobless claims rose to 2.802 million for the previous week ended Sept. 17, from 2.658 million a week earlier.