Thursday October 4, 8:46 am Eastern Time Jobless Claims Surge in Latest Week

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Workers laid off in the aftermath the Sept. 11 attacks pushed up initial claims for U.S. jobless benefits for the second straight week to the highest in nine years, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

First-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose much more than expected to 528,000 in the week ended Sept. 29 from a revised 457,000 in the previous week. The figure was the highest since 539,000 in the July 25, 1992 week when the country was struggling out of its last recession.

Cindy Ambler, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, said the steep increase in this week's claims reflects a domino effect from the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, particularly in travel and tourism.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley1@netzero.net), October 04, 2001