Jobless Claims Jump for Week

Initial jobless claims rose to the highest in more than two years for the week ended Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Jobless claims jumped by 69,000, to 375,000, the department said, the biggest since just after Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.

The weekly claims level was well above economists’ forecast 319,000 claims, Bloomberg reported.

The number of people continuing to collect benefits rose to 2.716 million for the previous week ended Jan. 19, from 2.669 million, Labor said.