The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment statistics on Thursday. It showed that another 230,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on January 8th. That's about 23,000 more than the previous week, and the highest number in the last eight weeks.
Here is the Labor Department official statement:
In the week ending January 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 230,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 207,000. The 4-week moving average was 210,750, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 204,500.
