Weekly first-time jobless claims rise 19,000

WASHINGTON - Initial requests for jobless benefits rose last week to their highest level since April, a sign that hiring remains weak and some companies are still cutting workers.

The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 479,000. Analysts had expected a small drop. Claims have risen twice in the past three weeks.

Some of the increase in claims stemmed from difficulties the government has in adjusting for seasonal factors.

But the jump in claims is a cautionary sign that higher corporate profits and a slowly recovering economy aren't spurring companies to generate many jobs. "The very unyielding flow of layoffs now clearly evident discourages any thought that employers are more comfortable with the size of their staffs," Pierre Ellis, an economist at Decision Economics, wrote in a note to clients.

Recent economic data has heightened concerns that the recovery is slowing. Americans are spending cautiously as they save more and pay down debt. Home sales and construction have slumped after a popular home buyers' tax credit expired on April 30.

Some analysts said seasonal factors that began in early July are still skewing the jobless claims numbers and must be considered before reading too much into the report.

The Labor Department anticipated a large decline in claims last week as many auto companies usually shut their plants temporarily in early July. Claims were expected to rise during the shutdown and then fall. But this year General Motors and other manufacturers skipped the shutdowns, so claims didn't fall last week as much as expected.

Meanwhile, the government will release its snapshot of the nation's overall job market for July , and no one expects anything strong. Private companies are expected to have added 90,000 jobs for the month, not nearly enough for healthy economic growth. The overall figure is expected to show a loss of 65,000 jobs for July, because of the end of temporary positions with the U.S. Census Bureau. Unemployment is not expected to budge much from 9.5 percent.