Economy Unemployment aid requests up, but stable

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of Verizon workers on strike pushed the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week to its highest level in a month. But excluding the work stoppage, layoffs appear to be stabilizing. That should help ease fears that the economy is on the verge of a recession. Weekly applications for unemployment benefits rose 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 417,000, the Labor Department said. But last week's non-seasonally adjusted total included about 8,500 of those employees, the department said. About 12,500 striking workers filed claims two weeks ago. About 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike Aug. 7. Unions representing the workers ended the strike earlier this week. Typically, workers who walk off the job aren't eligible for benefits. But states have specific rules governing labor disputes. Applications were slowly declining before the strike. They are down from an eight-month high of 478,000 in April. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to 407,500, the first increase in eight weeks. Still, applications typically need to fall below 375,000 to signal sustainable job growth. They haven't been at that level since February. Joshua Shapiro, an economist at MFR Inc., calculated that without the strike, applications would have dipped to 397,000 two weeks ago and risen to 407,000 last week. The number of people receiving benefits under regular state unemployment programs fell to 3.6 million. That's the fewest since Sept. 20, 2008, the week after Lehman Brothers collapsed and the financial crisis intensified. Some of the unemployed may be finding work. But others are likely exhausting the 26 weeks of benefits provided in most states. There are roughly 3.5 million additional people receiving extended benefits, paid for by the federal government, under emergency programs enacted by Congress. All told, about 7.3 million unemployed people received unemployment benefits in the week ending Aug. 6, the latest data available. Published: Fri, Aug 26, 2011