The number of Americans filing unemployment claims unexpectedly rose last week to the highest level since 1982 and those staying on benefit rolls jumped to a record as companies kept cutting jobs to trim costs.
Initial jobless claims swelled by 12,000 to 669,000 in the week ended March 28, topping 600,000 for a ninth-straight time, after a revised 657,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said in Washington. The number of people staying on benefit rolls soared in the prior week to 5.73 million.