WASHINGTON, Aug 26 (AFP) - The queue of people filing new claims for jobless benefits grew last week, hurt by damage to businesses caused by Hurricane Charley, a US government report showed Thursday.
The number of new claimants for unemployment benefits rose 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 343,000 in the week ended August 21, after dipping 1,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said.
Charley, which killed 20 and shuttered many businesses in Florida and neighboring states August 13 and 14, caused about half of the gain in unemployment claims, a government official said.
A four-week average of new jobless benefit claims, which smoothes out weekly distortions, dropped 750 to 336,750.
In raw, unadjusted figures, the number of new claims rose 5,131 to 272,894. There were 313,058 claims in the comparable period last year.
The pool of existing claimants -- those making claims for at least two weeks -- rose 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 2.90 million in the week ended August 14, the latest date for which those numbers were available.