Katrina impacts Labor Department figures
September 15, 2005
According figures reported by the US Labor Department on Thursday, a total of 71,000 more people filed first-time unemployment claims in the week ending September 9 than in the week before.
This was the largest rise in new claims in nearly 10 years, topping the number of claims filed in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which generated 59,000 and 64,000 new jobless claims in consecutive weeks.
Most of last week’s increase, 68,000 new claims, was attributed to the effect of Hurricane Katrina, and officials say that the number will likely be adjusted upward once state unemployment offices catch up with a backlog of claims.
The estimate of new claims generated by Hurricane Katrina for the week ending September 3 has already been increased from an initial estimate of 10,000 to between 15,000 and 16,000. The surge in new claims brought the total number of first time claims in the week to 398,000, which was the highest weekly total in two years.
Some analysts believe that when all is said and done, Hurricane Katrina will have cost somewhere around 400,000 jobs.